


The First Blood

by MarthaMEGO3



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Aziraphale/Crowley First Kiss (Good Omens), Blood Drinking, Blood Drinking and Sex, Blood and Violence, Brujah (Vampire: The Masquerade), But in this case her name is Michelle, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Romance, Experienced Aziraphale (Good Omens), Experienced Crowley (Good Omens), F/M, Gabriel is ok in this one too, Gangrel (Vampire: The Masquerade), Human Adam Young, Human Crowley (Good Omens), Idiots in Love, M/M, Malkavian (Vampire: The Masquerade), Michael is good bro, Mild Smut, Minor Angst, Minor changes to lore, Nosferatu (Vampire: The Masquerade), Original non-canon characters, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Aziraphale (Good Omens), Protective Crowley (Good Omens), Sabbat (Vampire: The Masquerade), Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, Vampire Aziraphale (Good Omens), Vampire Beelzebub (Good Omens), Vampire Gabriel (Good Omens), Vampire Newton Pulsifer, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines lore, Vampire: The Masquerade lore divergence, Ventrue (Vampire: The Masquerade), Witch Anathema Device
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:34:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 49,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23816986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarthaMEGO3/pseuds/MarthaMEGO3
Summary: Aziraphale has been alive for a very long time and knows his place in the hierarchy of the immortal society in which he belongs; or that's until a Corruption starts to wreck havoc amongst the clans of the vampire society. Now, he must find the fable descendant of the First Vampire and beat time before the Final Death comes for all of them.Anthony "Tony" Crowley lives a pretty normal life, caring for his plants, amusing his best friend with her claims of magic and babysitting their neighbours kid for a few extra pounds; and then, one night, an incredibly weird but incredibly charming man stumbles into his life and Tony's soon will learn about the terrible things that live in the dark.
Relationships: Anathema Device & Newton Pulsifer, Anathema Device/Newton Pulsifer, Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Warlock Dowling & Adam Young, Warlock Dowling/Adam Young
Comments: 12
Kudos: 54





	1. The Gathering

**Author's Note:**

> Once someone told me, "If you don't find the story you want to read, write it". Here is my attempt at writting something inspired by two of my favorite things in the world: Good Omens and vampires.
> 
> This is a work in progress and english is not my first language, but let's see how it goes. I'll try to update every week (if I don't get a writers block).

The room was packed and the tensions amongst the clans were palpable enough that Aziraphale couldn’t help but shifted a little in his seat, wringing his hands in a very human way and shifting his gaze nervously to avoid looking at the faces of the leaders and fixating it in Gabriel’s nape instead. _Why did I agreed to do this? I should have stayed home and read a book._ He sighed, another human habit he wasn’t been able to lose even after all this time.

  
“Get it together,” Michelle hissed from her seat. It was low enough than only the head board of the Ventrue clan could pick it up.  
“I’m sorry,” Aziraphale whispered and forced himself to remain as statuesque as the others that surround him, but if his heart could still beat, he had the feeling that it will be pounding against his ribcage. He had never been good with crowds or the politics that came with being the chronicler and archivist of the Ventrue clan; when Gabriel had offered him the post, Aziraphale had only thought about the countless hours he could spent reading and learning more, about the infinite quantity of books, archives, memoirs and information that he would have at his disposal… Of course, everything in life came with a cost, even in the immortal one.

  
Before he could have kept sinking more into his misery, the entire room plunged into stillness as the doors at the back of the of where Aziraphale was sitting opened; Gabriel stood up and move with a silent grace to escort Mother into the room.  
As one, every vampire of every clan stood up and bowed their head (even the Brujah did their best to seem respectful), as Mother made her way to the high seat in the center of the gathering; Aziraphale kept his gaze down as she passed him, but still feeling the huge wave of ancient power that came with her… No one was really sure how old Mother was or what was her real name, but since she became the Queen of the clans in the Old World, things have been less hostile amongst the immortal ones and peace had been flimsy, but real… until now.

  
Mother took a seat as did everyone else, and as Aziraphale look up, Mother’s sweet and hypnotic voice rang just once. “Let’s begin, my children.”

_________ _________ _________ _________

The stillness of the room went for another second, and then Gabriel’s baritone voice raise and every single vampire in the room went into total business mode (which was still jarring in Aziraphale’s mind, seeing how easily predators could still pretend to be humans).  
“Thank you all for being here, we know the situation is not essential, but we must address this… inconvenient state of affairs.”  
“Inconvenient, he says… More like a bloody pain in the neck, that is.”  
Gabriel’s shoulders tense a bit, but he still kept the cordial tone as he addressed Atticus Shadwell, one the Brujah’s representatives. “Mister Shadwell…”  
“That’s SARGEANT Shadwell, laddie”  
Aziraphale wince a little, knowing Gabriel and the rest of the Ventrue clan were not fond of the Brujahs’s volatile and hostile nature, and their necessity of making war out of everything.  
“MISTER Shadwell…” Gabriel’s tone did no give room for discussion, but before anything else could be said, a soft voice interceded.“Another two nests will be wiped out by the end of the week.”  
Everyone turned their stares at the Malkavian clan and fixed them in Agnes Nutter, their leader and prime oracle. “I’ve seen it, it can’t be help. The affliction is spreading faster than any of us could anticipated it.”

  
_Two nests? That can’t be right._ Aziraphale thought as he worried his lip, careful no to pierce it with one of his fangs.  
“Two nests, you said. Which clans?” Asked Uri, her form leaning forward in the chair.  
“Brujah and Nosferatu”  
A low growl raised from Shadwell’s throat, the rest of the clan following suit and some even bearing their fangs in anger. “This is what we’ve been trying to tell you!” Shadwell bellowed. “This “affliction” is nothing but an act of war! The bloody Outlanders had allied themselves with the Sabbats… Those damn anarchists are trying to wipe us all out, starting with the clans that provide intel and fighters!”

  
Whispers erupted around the chamber, some furious, some curious, but all worried about it; Aziraphale knew this discussion from before, since the “Affliction of the Blood” started rampaging thought many nest and decimating many clans, another two Gathering had been held. The first one had been mere protocol, to try and figure out what was happening, it was held three years ago; then the second had been more serious, with many nests infected, and that was the first time someone had offer the possibility that the Gangrel clan might had allied themselves with the Sabbats and, somehow, had invented a way to eradicated the Camarilla with the Affliction, that Gathering was held a year ago. A now, a third Gathering, more nests infected, some clans at the brink of destruction and still, no answers to what was causing this… Not the Gangrels or the Sabbats had made contact or sent a declaration of war, many clan leaders believe they were mending their time until the Camarilla was at their weakest before they strike, and Aziraphale didn’t know what to think anymore. _This Gathering is starting to look more and more like a war council, he thought._  
“We cannot fall into conspiracies,” Gabriel said above the noise. “There has been not open attacks or declaration of war, if we start attacking every Sabbat or Gangrel that cross our path, all our society will collapse!”“So, what do you suggest we do? Sit and wait while many of our own Kindred drop like flies?” asked Shadwell.

  
“We need to remain calm, it’s imperative that we find out more about this affliction” said Michelle, and Aziraphale notice she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. _You’re up_ , seem to said.  
Aziraphale breath a few times, bracing himself. _This is why you are here, tell them what you found._ He tried speak over the noise, but no one else seem to listen. He cleared his throat once, twice, but no even Gabriel turn to look at him. You really are useless, Aziraphale thought to himself, his eyes itching with blood tears about to spill.  
“Silence, please,” the voice of Mother drifted through the chamber and every vampire fell quiet. “Go on, my child”.  
Aziraphale stared, almost open mouthed, at the beauty of Mother looking right at him; she had turned in her seat, regarding him with eyes full of wisdom and age, eyes that had seem so much and still remained young in appearance. Aziraphale couldn’t tell what color those eyes were, but he felt some courage building inside him, so he cleared his throat once more and stood as graceful as he could manage.  
“Good evening to all,” he said and almost slapped himself at how ridiculous and formal he sounded. “My name’s Aziraphale Frye and I’m the archivist of the Ventrue clan.”  
“What’s up with the nerd?” a snarky whisper came from the Brujah clan.  
_Keep it together, Aziraphale, you can do this._

  
“As you may know, the archive has an extensive pool of knowledge, some goes even to the first years of the creation and birth of our kind. Researching some of the most ancient scrolls and memoirs, I’ve put together a theory about what and how this “Affliction” came to be.”  
The room went completely still and then a snort came from the Nosferatu corner. “A theory, he says. What a joke… The world has advanced, bookworm, and the new technologies tell us more than dusty old books.” Aziraphale didn’t know this vampire, but he remembered that his name was Brimstone or something like that. “We have a fact for all of you: chemical weapon. Not everything must be mystical with us, maybe the Sabbats or the Gangrel are working with some brains to develop this “Affliction” and we just need a way…”  
He never finished the sentence, because a huge wave of power crashed down into the chamber and many let gasps of pure pain; Aziraphale was nearly knock out of his feet, but resisted the urge to fall down and tried to clear his bleary eyes as the voice od Mother rang out against the walls. “You had no permission to speak, child,” the voice was to loud but also sound like a whisper in the head of every vampire. “You will not interrupt again or speak ill against someone else. We are Kindred, We are One, if we do not support each other in these desperate times, we will go extinct.”  
The room went quiet and Aziraphale almost fell sideways, but Michelle held him with an outstretch arm, he nodded his thanks and righted himself. He cleared his throat once more and Mother turn to him again, “Continue, please.”  
Aziraphale felt every par of eyes on him at the moment, since Mother had interceded in his behalf and that was kind of unheard of, she didn’t show favoritism. _Calm down, you fool, she just wants to know what you found out._  
“Thank you, your Majesty,” Aziraphale bowed his head. “In the old scrolls there’s mention of the _First Blood_ , the line from which all of us came to be and a sacred relict, it is believed that is what remains from our creator, Caine.” Whispers erupted around the room, but Aziraphale press on. “This blood is said to posses incredible healing powers for our kind, it can also rise a fallen Kindred from the Final Death and grant various and powerful disciplines. But, the scroll also warns, that if the First Blood would ever be corrupted and consumed in its corrupted form by any vampire, it will be the destruction of our kind.”

  
The entirety of the room went still; all the eyes were on Aziraphale now… Some looked astonished, others wrathful, and others, like Gabriel, looked at Aziraphale as he had gone mad.  
Aziraphale had lost all his bravado and looked around for a friendly gaze, and found Michelle’s clear brown eyes on him, the smallest smile on her lips, and a little nod of reassurance. The room was still silent as a tomb, and then Shadwell’s put his hand up and said, “Are we going to believe this? That a relic like that exist and is what is killing all of us? Sounds like a bed time story told by a wet nurse to make sure you’re a good vampire that drinks all his blood before sunrise.”  
No one move, no one even breathed, every vampire in the room was expecting for Mother to said something, to confirm o deny the existence of the First Blood. “What Aziraphale says is correct,” Mother said finally and then, all Hell broke loose.

_________ _________ _________ _________

Screams, snarls, hisses, growls, all the vampires in the room went mad and tried to climbed a top of each other to reach Mother and demand answers. Uri and Gabriel were in front of the Queen, trying in vain to calm the crowd, while Aziraphale and Michelle were at each side of Mother, also pushing back the rabid vampires that, sooner or later, will get into a frenzy stated. _Oh, dear, I should have kept my mouth shut._  
Mother was impassive in her seat, looking with those ancient eyes how every vampire was almost jumping at her and doing nothing to stop the madness. What is she doing? This must be controlled somehow, Aziraphale thought desperately; then, Mother looked at him and he knew he needed to do something. _Make them listen_ , Mother’s eyes seem to say.

  
“There’s a way…” Aziraphale tried to say, but no one listen. He couldn’t do this, he wasn’t a warrior or a politician, no one ever listens to a simple archivist a librarian. _Make them listen, Make them listen, Make them listen_ , the same sentence seem to etched inside his skull. Aziraphale channel all his power, he was more than an archivist, he was older than most of the vampires in the room, and they… would… listen. “THERE IS A WAY!” Aziraphale roared with a voice that seemed out of place in his soft mouth and everyone stilled.  
“Wheter de Gangrel, the Sabbats or another clan did it, there is a way to stop The Corruption of the Blood”, yes, a corruption, an affliction didn’t sound good anymore. “The scrolls tell about the First Line, the descendants of Caine before he became a vampire, if we can find one of those descendants, we can stop the corruption and save our race from oblivion.”

  
The rest of the vampires stood still, all the eyes on Aziraphale and the on Mother, as if waiting for another confirmation. Mother looked at him, just once, and her gaze Aziraphale almost believed to see something akin to pride. _Pride? For me?_  
“This is also truth,” Mother said and all the vampires took a few steps back and listen. “Caine did leave behind another line of descendants, HUMAN descendants. Is their blood the one that can cleanse the corruption from the First Blood.”  
“How this corruption came to be, Mother?” Gabriel seemed even scared when he asked.  
“The First Blood is an innocent blood, a relic created by Caine himself to protect us from destruction, and how do you corrupt something innocent? By doing breaking the most sacred law of our kind.”

  
Aziraphale sallow hard, even if he kind of suspect it when he read the scroll. “A child,” he whispered.  
The rest of the room recoiled at the thought, Embracing a child and then forcing him or her to live in the shadows and killed for his o her existence was something that no only was despicable, but also completely forbidden.  
“Whoever broke the First Law, also tainted the First Blood with the blood of a recently Embraced child, and then brought that child back and started spreading this Corruption of Blood among us,” sentenced Mother.  
All the clans went still and Aziraphale wish that he had been wrong, but now there wasn’t a way of ignoring it. “What should we do?”, he asked to Mother.  
“I think that’s obvious isn’t it?”, said Shadwell. “We need to find this descendant and cleanse the First Blood before is the end of us.”  
“And how do you suggest we do that? Until today, none of us even knew that Caine had a human line of descendants.” Brimstone was annoying, but he was also right.  
Aziraphale knew they’ll be running in circles if the didn’t come up with a plan and soon: researching will take so much time, since he didn’t even know where to begin; the scrolls weren’t all that accurate and it took almost three years to translate some of what he shared tonight. He had to admitted it, they were doomed.

  
“Maybe we can find them,” the soft voice of Agnes Nutter came from the back of the crowd. “We just need something that has a connection to Caine.”  
Brimstone snorted again, “Sure, and while we are at it, maybe we can also make The Eternal Night to come, ey’?”  
“Shut up, worm, you’re making it worse”, snarled Shadwell and the pandemonium started again.  
There was no way of finding the descendants, Aziraphale knew this, no one alive had something that had belong to Caine, it was futile and he started to loose hope. _Maybe this is how we all go to the Final Death_ , he thought.

  
“There’s a way.”  
Everyone turned to see Mother, she had stood up from her chair and was making her way to Agnes, the vampires parted ways for the Queen as if a force pushed them out. “There’s a way,” she said again and handed Agnes a little gold ring. “This is the last vestige of one the long lines of Caine.”  
Every clan stood and watched as Agnes took the ring from the slender fingers of Mother and said, “We can turn this in a compass, it will help anyone to find the descendant.”  
“One of the Brujah must be the one to go, we are excellent trackers and can hold our own against enemies,” said Shadwell.  
“You wish, little soldier, let one of the Nosferatu go, we can move faster and stealth our way to the descendant,” replied Brimstone.  
“One look at you and he or she would probably run away screaming,” said Maria, one of the Toreador clan. “Let one of my Kindred go, we can blend in with the humans and make sure to do what it takes.”  
Voices started to raise again, all the clans fighting for the chance of finding the descendant. I guess is time to go, Aziraphale thought as he started to slip towards the door, he’s job done.  
“Mother, please, tell them that I am the best choice for this endeavor,” that was Gabriel, of course, he will fight to the death if it meant he could bring more honor and power to the Ventrue.  
Aziraphale was reaching for the door when Mother spoke again, “The one who will find the descendant is the one who discover them. Aziraphale, my child, you’ll be the one.”  
_Oh, bugger!_ Aziraphale knew he should had stayed home and read a book.


	2. The Finding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A birthday party. Two birthday boys. And an uninvited presence that will set the story into motion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking of wrapping this story in 20 chapters, but I still don't know if I could accomplish that yet. 
> 
> Anyhow, I'll be uploading a new chapter every Thursday. Thanks for reading and all the pretty kudos!

The Sun was streaming through a little crack in the curtains and making Tony’s closed eyelids turn that searing pink that wakes you up no matter what, and if that wasn’t enough, there was also an incessant buzz near his head that just… wouldn’t… stop. Groaning and throwing an arm up at his eyes to shield the worst from the light, he searched for his phone, relaying on touch and hearing alone, until he found the offending gadget. _Seriously, who calls so early in the morning?_ Tony thought as he peaked at the very brilliant screen, focus and throw himself forward on the bed.

It wasn’t morning at all, as the little digital clock on the screen told him as it changed to struck four o’clock, and beneath it there were dozens of messages and calls from Ana, going from cheerful, to concern, to upset, to homicidal; the last one only two lines long:

_“I’m fifteen minutes away from Nico’s. You better be up or I’ll ram your car through the door.”_

Tony tried to stood up, but his very long legs decided it was a good idea to get tangle in the sheets and he went plummeting down to the floor where tried to disentangled himself so he could start looking for his clothes, even thought his head was splitting open from the terrible tequila-induced-hangover; if he lived to reach his 30th birthday next year, he would skip tequila forever and ever, and that was a promise.

As he stood up at last and begun to dress as quickly as he can, a head full of messy bronze hair rised up from the bed, “ _Oh, putain_ , where’s the fucking fire?” Nico was rubbing his puffy eyes and trying to focus on the very nervous wreck Tony had transform into as he tried to laced his boots (which were, as Tony would figure out later in the car, backwards). “What are you doing? Get back to bed.”

“On your feet, you drunk goon, it’s already four o’clock in the afternoon, didn’t you had a plane to catch?” Tony asked, and then Nico was also on his feet and reaching for anything suitable to wear outside. Nico checked his phone, probably wondering if he could still take a quick shower to wash out the lingering scent of alcohol and sex from him, but decided it could wait and retreat to the far side of the bedroom to begin pulling clothes on him.

Tony had known the night before that drinking until the floor felt wobbly beneath his feet was a bad idea, but it had been a really awesome birthday-night-out that had culminated in a very excellent birthday-sex-night; he wondered, a bit worry, if Ana had dropped them and how had he convinced her to let him sleep over in London instead of going back to their cottage in Tadfielf with her _. Maybe she still harbors the hope that I settle down with Nico_ , Tony sighed as he regarded the latter’s broad shoulders (and very noticeable love bites) get cover by a hoodie.

It wasn’t that Tony didn’t like Nico, but it was easier to just hooked up once or twice and waited until Nico returned from one of his multiple business calls, and yeah, maybe Nico had suggested that Tony should go with him so he could get to know another one of his many clubs abroad; but this was easier, safer and less painful on the long run, they got along, had incredible sex, but there’s was just… something missing, although Tony didn’t know what it was, he was quite certain that falling in love and falling in lust were to completely different things.

He was still lost in thought when a very familiar horn sound outside and then his cellphone _ping_ in an almost menacing way to reveal the new message from Ana:

_“ANTHONY J. CROWLEY, YOU HAVE EXACTLY FIVE MINUTES TO SAY GOODBYE AND CLIMB YOUR LITTLE ASS IN YOUR CAR BEFORE I LOOSE MY PATIENCE”_

Tony winced internally and turned to say goodbye to Nico when he noticed he was exactly right next to him. “Fuck, Nico, I should hang a bell around your neck!” Sometimes, Nico moved incredibly fast and silent, which he said was a swift ability he acquired from moving around noisy and packed clubs almost every night.

“And you should stop spacing out and be more attentive to your surroundings,” Nico said with a soft smile. “I gather Thema is on the brink of losing her patience and start conjuring fire to drove you out.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Please, don’t encourage her with all the “magic” thing, is bad enough that mom does it every time she comes to the house.” Tony loved his best friend and his mom, but the whole witchy thing was starting to get out of hand, even thought Ana was well on her way to turn 28 in a few months.

“Ok, birthday boy, don’t get cranky or you get wrinkles around those beautiful eyes of yours,” said Nico as he caressed one side of Tony’s face and leaned in for a kiss… But then another blaring claxon honk sounded and Tony jumped, hitting his forehead against Nico’s.

“Christ, that woman is going to brake the horn if don’t go out there,” said Tony as he rubbed his assaulted forehead. “I know I should probably offer you a lift to the airport, but…”

“I know, don’t worry about it, _beau_. You had a birthday dinner to get to and I can call an Uber, and maybe bribe the driver so he or she would like to drive a bit faster,” Nico smiled and hold Tony’s hand up. “But before you go, here.”

A plain white envelope was in his hand and without asking for permission, Tony ripped open to see what was inside. In glittering letters, with a big V.I.P stamped on the center, was a ticket to the opening night of _Paradis_ , Nico’s new club in Paris, along with two first class plane tickets. Tony looked up to Nico’s forest green eyes and his surprise must have been very noticeable, because Nico laughed and place a quick kiss on Tony’s half open mouth.

“Nico, I…”

“Quiet, you. This is a birthday gift, not a gift without purpose, you can use it or not, is not an obligation, but and invitation. I know you always said no when I asked you to come along with me, but this opening will be amazing and I would really love for you to assist. And, of course, you can bring Thema along, that’s why there’s another ticket attach.”

Tony was speechless, this was more money than what he and Ana made at their gardening shop, but he couldn’t just give the tickets back, it would seem so spiteful from him. So he just pocketed the tickets and smiled (and he really hope it didn’t look as a grimace).

“Thanks, Nico. I’ll… discuss it with Ana and let you know in a few days if we can spare money for the trip.”

Nico gasped, almost offended. “How dare you, _beau_. You’ll be my guests, so there’s no need for extra money; if you decide to come, there’ll be a car to take you to one of my apartments and then to the club… So, don’t worry, just let me know your decision in a couple of days. Remember that the opening is on Thursday and it will be full of surprises.”

Another blaring sound came from outside and Tony knew he had stretched Ana’s patience enough; he turned around and was aiming for an innocent kiss on the cheek, but Nico chased his mouth and kissed him with enough abandon to make Tony’s toes curl in his boots (something was really wrong with these boots).

“Happy birthday, _beau_.” Nico whispered into his mouth.

“Ngk… Th… Thanks,” Tony stuttered as he reached for the door and descend the stairs two at the time.

_________________________________________

Ana was fuming behind the wheel and didn’t even offered to change seats with Tony, she just pressed down the gas pedal as the passenger door closed to incorporated Tony’s beat out Bentley to London’s traffic; if there was something that Anathema Device hated more than raisins or confusing handwriting, was being late and out of schedule, and since they were both on the verge of being late for the very dinner party that Ana had ensemble for Tony’s birthday, she was on a war path to reduce the hour drive to Tadfield to thirty minutes, and it wasn’t that Tony didn’t like speed, he just didn’t like it when he wasn’t the one wielding it behind the wheel.

Tony knew he should have waited for them to reach their home, but he couldn’t wait any longer. “I know you want to murder me right now, but I need to tell you something…”

Ana looked at him from the corner of her eyes with enough fire to lit up a small bonfire, but didn’t said anything, so Tony thought that was a good sign. He breathed deep and pulled out the tickets from his jacket pocket; Ana caught the gesture and just grumbled, which in her angry language meant, _The heck is that?_

“Nico gifted me first class tickets to Paris so we can attend the opening of his new club.” Luckily, Tony was wearing his seatbelt as Ana step on the break pedal, maneuvered to not hit the car in the lane next to them and accelerated again amongst the angry horns of the other drivers.

Tony’s heart was beating roughly against his chest as Ana squealed… An honest to God squeal. “Ohmygod, Anthony! You finally had a boyfriend and on your birthday, I’m so happy for you!”

Tony loved Ana for her calm and collect personality, but sometimes she could actually get so exited as a little girl, just like now, but he didn’t want her to go nuclear at home and started telling things the wrong way.

“Ana, Nico and I aren’t together… I don’t have a boyfriend. So relax, woman, before you burst open a vein.”

Ana almost caused another accident and Tony decided this was the last time she was driving the Bentley. “He didn’t ask you? But he told me…” she stopped talking and turned a furious shade of red, almost as red as Tony’s unkempt hair.

“Wot?! What do you mean he didn’t “asked me”?”

Ana bit her lip and casted a sideways guilty glance at Tony, then sighed. “Nico convinced me yesterday to let you stay with him, he was planning to asked you today to formalized your relationship by inviting you to Paris.” So, that explained why Tony had stayed in London, _And I thought I was good at using my charm_.

“Ana…”

“I know, I know, Crowley” she only used his surname when she was feeling extremely angry or extremely guilty. “But I thought it would be nice, you know, and so romantic.” Tony just sighed and looked out the window… He had been played and his best friend had conspired with his not-so-innocent friend with benefits behind his back.

The ride was silent for a while, with Tony still looking outside and Ana drumming her fingers against the wheel. After a few more moments of silence, she asked, “Are you really angry with me?”

Tony rubbed his neck and pulled his hair, which made it even more wild, “You know I’m not, I could never be mad at you… It’s just I hate being in the shadows about something and having things decided for me.”

Ana blinked rapidly and clear her throat. Tony reached and grab one her hands from the wheel, placing a soft kiss in her knuckles and reaching to rub a strand of her soft chocolate brown hair in his fingers. “Come now, Annie, it’s ok, I’m not mad”

She blinked once more and gave him a guilty smile, but still, a smile is a smile. She wiped a little stray tear from her cheek and kept driving, at a more reasonable speed, since they were almost home. When they reached the cottage and Ana turn down the car, and they climbed out, when she asked what was on her mind from the moment he told her about the tickets. “So, are you going to Paris?”

Tony was about to answer that he, really, didn’t know, when a very small but strong force grab him by the waist and almost made him tumbled to the ground. The small urchin screamed at the top of his lungs, “Happy Birthday, Crowley!”

_________________________________________

Adam Young was turning thirteen today and he couldn’t be happier: he wasn’t a boy anymore, he was almost grown up enough to do things that grown ups do (whatever that is) and he will be attending junior high next fall with the Them, and the adventures they’ll have would be grand.

Sometimes, he liked to pretend that he was old enough to be exited by some things, but when Anathema had suggested to his parents that maybe Adam was old enough to celebrate his birthday along side Crowley, he almost had begged his parents to said yes… Adam loved Crowley, he was like the coolest older brother he never had: he always dressed all in black, didn’t matter the day or season, with cool ripped jeans and combat boots, his red hair always seemed wild and his right arm was covered in the most amazing snake tattoo; but still, Crowley was nice, patient and kind, and always treated Adam as an adult, answering every question, convincing him to learn more.

Crowley and Anathema were “his cool older friends”, as the Them like to called them, and really like the odd couple ( _couple as in friends or siblings_ , Anathema had said once) that move to the old cottage a few years ago, and then Crowley had become his partner in crime _(“nanny” was to sappy_ , Crowley used to say) and everything went from there.

Now, Adam was holding Crowley from his waist, trying to tackled him, when he felt the rumbled from the grown man’s chest and he was upside down in a swift motion, as Crowley laugh. “Happy birthday, brat!”

Crowley started swinging a-still-upside-down Adam and he could see Anathema was trying to look concern instead of amused about his friend’s antics, and then Adam heard his very recognizable mother’s gasp and his father throat clearing. Adam’s parents, Arthur and Deirdre, really liked Crowley, but sometimes they thought he was a bit rough with his little boy.

“Good evening, Mr and Mrs Young,” Crowley said as he righted Adam and put him on the ground. “Great day for a diner party to celebrate your offspring reach into adulthood, right?”

Adam smiled as Anathema tried to hide her smile behind her hands; sometimes, the Youngs really thought Crowley was a bit to unpredictable and wild for his son, but Adam was glad that even his father stoic nature would find some form of solace in Crowley’s close affection for Adam.

Before anyone could said another thing, a low rumble came from the road and a little scooter climbed the little hill that lead to Crowley and Anathema’s home; with a bright pink helmet and a dress that billowed in the wind, Madame Tracy ( _oh, just Tracy, dear,_ had said Madame Tracy a thousand times to Adam), eccentric drama teacher at Tadfield’s elementary school and Crowley’s mom, finally arrived.

Crowley’s face split into a big toothy smile as he approached his mom, who looked extremely tiny compared to his very tall son, and he embraced her with so much love and caring that Adam couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, sweetie pie,” said Madame Tracy as she guided Crowley’s head down to pinched his cheek. “You reek of alcohol and bad decisions, was it a good night?”

Arthur Young cleared his throat and Madame Tracy looked over. “Oh, good evening Youngsters, you beat me here. And happy birthday, dear Adam, thirteen is a very magical age for you. So many changes and growth in every…”

Arthur Young cleared his throat more loudly this time and Madame Tracy look over to him, “Oh lord, seemed you are coming down with something, Mr. Young, are you feeling alright? You even looked a bit red, if I may say…”

“Maybe we should move this party inside,” intervened Anathema. “So we can start heating the food and for Tony to take a quick bath.”

“Yes, yes of course… Splendid.” Mr. Young took Deirdre’s hand in his and head for the little entrance to the cottage, going around to the little back garden where they will be dining. They were follow by Anathema, who kissed Madame Tracy in her cheek and gave her a quick hug; Adam lingered a little to see Crowley helping his mom unload a little basket from the scooter. Sometimes, when no one was looking, you could see how good and kind Crowley was, even if sometimes people think he was rough or wild, seeing him helping his mom was the most endearing thing in the world.

Adam started walking to the back garden, remembering that his parents sometimes said that Crowley’s wild personality was inherited from his mother, but Adam thought that was what made Crowley and Madame Tracy so similar and bonded them together, not blood, but love was what made them mother and son.

_________________________________________

Ana had really outdone herself this time, the decoration was almost magical: little Christmas lights hang from every tree and pot of flowers, which gave a soft glow and no other light source was necessary; the table was set for the six of them, (since Adam younger friends would be celebrating with him tomorrow) with little candles and throw pillows on the chairs and the scent of rosemary in the air.

Tony had tried to dressed a bit formal for the occasion after his quick shower, but in the end he had settle for an everyday outfit: slim black ripped jeans, combat boots, a black T-shirt with a Queen’s logo and a black shirt tied to his waist; Ana had changed into a flowing green dress with sandals and his mom was wearing his favorite gauze pink dress, which made the Youngs looked a bit over dress for a diner-picnic, with Arthur’s Young khaki pants and tie, and Deirdre’s formal floral dress with high-heels (which were not suit to a garden party), but at least Adam was in a more comfortable outfit, with jeans and a hoodie (which, to Tony’s great happiness, was the one he had gifted the little brat tow days ago).

The food was a mix between Tony and Adam’s favorite meals, which include: lasagna, Shepherd's Pie, mini-hamburgers, green salad, ice-cream, bownies, bubble soda and red wine; it wasn’t exactly fancy, but Tony was happy with it and with the company, he was happy to had this amazing little family of his own. After a few glasses of wine, the Youngs relaxed a little and started to trade jokes with Mama Tracy and Ana, while Adam stuffed himself with dangerous quantities of ice cream (the little rascal was about to have a very different hangover than his own).

The evening gave way to the night and the wine and the ice cream kept flowing. Tony was content, with Ana’s head resting on his shoulder and Adam’s head on his lap, while his mom talked about some tarot reading with the Youngs… Live was easy and perfect as it was, with him living in a small cottage with his best friend, his mom a few minutes away in Tadfield and a little brat that had become so important in little time.

Tony was starting to relax, to forgot about the stressful moment with Nico earlier that day, when he felt something odd, as if someone was watching him from afar; he tried to shake the feeling, but he couldn’t, then Ana remove her head from his shoulder and started looking around.

“What’s wrong?” Adam had rise from his position at Tony’s lap and was looking bleary eye around, trying to figure out why his friends were in a weird mood. Tony was tense and Ana had stood up, looking straight for the trees.

The Youngs also had stop chatting with Mama Tracy and were looking around, trying to decide if there was something out of place; the atmosphere had change and everyone had stop laughing. _What is happening? I feel watched and almost prey upon,_ Tony shivered.

Before anything else happen, Mama Tracy clapped hard and everyone jump, with Mr. Young yelping a little to sharp. “Ok, I think is time for the birthday cake!” Said Mama Tracy, with ease (although Tony could have sworn she was a bit tenser than him). “Ana, sweety, let’s get the cake.”

Ana looked another second to long to the trees and then seemed to regain consciousness, “Y… yes, of course, birthday cake for the birthday boys!” She followed Mama Tracy to the cottage, no without looking once more over her shoulder.

“Cake?” That was Adam, now fully awake and hungry for more sweets, which destroy the tense bubble in the air and Tony laugh at the boy’s eagerness.

“You can eat any more sweets, you’ll explode, chubby.”

Adam puffed his cheeks and stood up. “I’m not full and I bet I can climb that tree faster than you, old man.” Adam loved climbing things, it was a thing he liked to do to scape or to get his bearings or just because.

Tony looked at the Youngs, who were still a little to into de effects of wine to really prohibited anything, and since the tree in the garden was not very tall, Tony was surprised when Mr. Young said, “Go on, son, show him what you’re made of.”

Adam started running towards the tree, followed by Tony and both of them started laughing when they reach the trunk and started to try to find hand holds to climb faster than the other; Tony heard Ana and Mama Tracy coming out of the cottage, chatting and a littler more at ease, which gave him the strength to climb faster.

It was a swift climb, short, but he felt exalted, his good mood back from where it had fled; when he reached the top, with Adam close on his hills, Tony stretched his hand downward to help the kid made the final climb, but when Adam’s hand close around his, Adam went completely still and as a white as a ghost, his gaze fixated at some point onto the trees of the woods that surround them.

Tony didn’t dare to looked, but something had spooked the kid, so, very carefully and slowly, he turned his stared front and felt as his soul left his body… There, on the top of one of the tallest trees, was a shadow, a small shadow, almost like a kid, with bright eyes that reflect the lights like those of a cat or… a predator.

Adam’s grip started to get flimsy and when Tony looked down, he saw Adam had passed out from the impression, which was making it harder to stay put on the tree; when he tried to regained his balance, his foot slipped and Tony felt how gravity took hold of them… The fall wouldn’t hurt them much, but on the last second, he pulled Adam on top of him and move to land beneath them, to cushion the kid’s fall.

Tony heard screams, from the Youngs and his family, he felt has the bark and the branches of the tree scrape against his and Adam skin, drawing blood, and before he hit the ground he could had swore the shadow in the trees jump off as well at the same time they fell… Then, his head hit hard and everything went black.

_________________________________________

“We found him,” Agnes Nutter muttered from her little corner, where she and the rest of her clan had gathered to try and find the Descendant of Caine. And now, they had found… him? It was a him?

Aziraphale remain seated next to Michelle, as the Malkavian leader approach him, every vampire in the room watching as the thing that will lead to the salvation of their race was put into Aziraphale’s pinky finger.

Aziraphale felt nothing at first, but then a little tug on his hand, faint enough to ignore, but a tug that will guide him. “I feel it,” he said.

Mother stood up from her high chair, followed by Gabriel, and they stopped in front of the white haired vampire, who was looking incredulous at the little ring in his hand. Mother held his hand with her own and Aziraphale snapped out of his thoughts.

“You had your destiny now, child.” Mother said in a low, hypnotic voice. “Now, you just need to decided who would accompany you in this quest.”


	3. Starting the quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A vampire on a quest. An ex-birthday boy trying to move on after a shocking night. Their paths are about to entwined in ways none of them could had predicted.

Aziraphale had retreat to a little chamber next to the gathering room, away from the shouts, the hisses, the threats and the pleads of all the vampires that were trying to choose and offer “their best” to go with a “weakling bookworm that could barely hunt for his dinner” (honestly, the Brujah were incredibly rude, considering Aziraphale was as fast and deadly as any of them… on occasion and when it didn’t interrupt his reading time).

Michelle had positioned herself just next to the closed door, guarding it from anyone who would want to barge to try to force Aziraphale to “pick him, pick her” while almost ripping his arm from his socket (the scratches were healing quickly, but no as quickly as they might have been if Aziraphale had fed last night); Mother was also in the room, along with Agnes Nutter, both women quietly sitting in a cushion loveseat, staring intently at Aziraphale as he played with the little ring that now sit in his pinky left finger… He could still feel a slight pull, as if the ring was trying to started a quest his owner wasn’t so sure anymore.

The documents that Aziraphale had found about the human descendant of Caine were pretty old and in a very old forgotten language, which had taken weeks to decipher, and even Aziraphale was sure some words were wrong or maybe he had misunderstood them, also there was the little detail about some missing parts and pieces, almost as in the document had been ripped or burned.

Aziraphale sigh as the door opened a little, with Michelle going into a fighting stance, when Gabriel squeezed trough the gap and arranged his hair (his clothes were a bit torn, but there was nothing to do about it). “Aziraphale, you need to make you choice quickly before we had an uprising, Uriel is managing, but it doesn’t look good.”

_I really don’t want to make this decision_ , Aziraphale thought, tugging at the little bowtie at his neck, trying to think about it: Mother had suggest that Aziraphale should only choose one companion, since the mission must be discreet and fast, far away from the prying eyes of the enemies (wheter the Gangrels, the Sabbats or any other who would loved to see the Camarilla destroy); he knew very well he could ask Michelle to come and he was very sure she will accept, but she was also the swore guardian and commander of Mother’s bodyguard force, so he couldn’t be that selfish; the next obvious choice was Gabriel o Uriel, but Aziraphale didn’t get along with any of them and he was sure that if two vampires from the Ventrue clan were the ones to get this mission, that wouldn’t sit well with the other clans, so now he was pondering what were his best option laid among the bloodthirsty vampires out there.

Aziraphale was a very well adapted member of the vampire clans, he could pass as a human if he tried hard enough, could hold his own ground in a fair fight and was very smart and cunning enough to get by, but he knew that other clans had Disciplines that he lacked mastery of, so he needed to ponder what was best suit for this endeavor: the connections of the Toreador, the smarts of the Nosferatu, the magics of the Tremere, the sight of the Malkavian or the strength of the Brujah… but there was also the downsides of each clan and how that could affected the mission.

This kind of decision called for a very long time of contemplation, a time they didn’t had right now, so Aziraphale was panicking deep down and trying to think what was the best procedure for this endeavor; he wasn’t leader material, he was quiet and loved the company of books more than that of his fellow brethren of the clan or any clan for that matter.

_I don’t know, I don’t know, I just don’t know_. 

Then, he felt a delicate small hand in his cheek and Aziraphale snapped his eyes forward, realizing that Mother was in front of him, capturing his attention in those ancient but very beautiful eyes. “Sometimes, when your mind is troubled, following your heart can help you decided.” She then smiled and walked toward Gabriel. “I’ll be taking my leave now, darling. Please, help your brother and do as he says.”

And then, she was gone, in a flash and faster than Aziraphale had seen any other vampire move. Aziraphale and the rest of the small chamber remain in silence for another second before Michelle pulled out her phone and started talking with the rest of her subordinates to found out if Mother was with them and if everything was ok; Gabriel was still blinking in confusion, while Agnes was humming under her breath a song Aziraphale couldn’t quite placed.

_Follow my heart_ , Aziraphale thought, as he placed a hand against his chest, perfectly aware that his heart hadn’t beat in a very long time, but knowing that Mother had given him a good advice a now he needed to take action. Standing in a graceful move, he walked to Gabriel and said, “I know how I’ll choose.”

____________________________________

The rest of the clans had been calmed down and now Aziraphale was in front of them, all over again, feeling as every single one of them seized him up, waiting for an opening to throw themselves at him again. Aziraphale squared his shoulders and clear his throat, “Please, I asked you to propose one member of your clan present tonight. Not just the best at being a vampire, but the best at being human.”

What Aziraphale was asking was something he knew, deep down, was the answer for this mission to be successful, since many of the members of the Camarilla took pride in being terrible creatures of the night and had forgotten what it was to be human once, which could prove deadly for the humans they run into, but still, he knew he also needed someone who could fight if it was necessary. Aziraphale himself knew he wasn’t human, but sometimes he felt more closed to what he once had been than to what he currently was.

The clans had retreated to different corners of the room and were whispering low enough that none of the others vampires could picked up what they were saying. The first to come forward were the Malkavian, with Agnes at the front. “We like to withdrew from putting forward a candidate from out clan.”

Everyone went silent and Aziraphale just stood there, a little dumbfounded, without knowing what to do. “Are you sure?” _Please, someone smack me now! Very eloquent, Aziraphale._

Agnes just smiled and said, “We’re sure. We found the Descendant for you and although we can hold our own, we know that sometimes we lacked the… subtlety and focus for this kind of things, so we withdrew in hopes to making you decision a bit easier.”

Aziraphale felt an incredibly weigh lift from him when Brimstone and the rest of the Nosferatu also step forward. “I guess we also withdrew from this, no because we don’t believe in ourselves, but because maybe our appearance might not be suitable for this kind of “undercover” mission.”

Two down, three to go. Aziraphale gave a little nod to the clans that had withdrew and wait, almost hopeful, that two of the remaining clans will follow suit and Aziraphale will just had to choose from one prospect.

“Well, if that’s decided, we have our choice,” claimed Maria from the Toreador clan, as a very beautiful woman with long wavy black hair and deep brown eyes step forward. “This is Evangeline and she’s willing to make anything in her power to make sure this “quest” succeeds.”

Before Aziraphale could say anything, Silas, the head of the Tremere clan, raised his voice and said, “We also have our choice. This is Victoria, she excels at various spell-casting abilities and has enough years on the clan to know exactly how to handle humans.” Victoria was also a very beautiful woman, with straight brown hair and a refined face, she almost looked as if she had been Embraced when she was barely out of her teenage years.

Before Aziraphale could acknowledge any of the women in front of him, someone was push in front of the Brujah clan and made a quick sidestep to avoid falling face first, which was odd since vampires weren’t known for being clumsy; this vampire in particular was a male, tall and thin, with big round eyes, somewhere between green and blue, with short brown hair and he looked young, not as young as Victoria, but young enough to had been in his mid to late twenties when he was embraced.

The young male opened his mouth to say something when Shadwell push his way to the front row and clamped a hand on the younger vampire shoulder. “This is Newton, our unanimous choice for the Brujah and he’s eager to go in this quest.”

Aziraphale was quite sure this Newton fellow wasn’t eager about nothing; he fidget with his hands, kept his eyes glued to the floor and, if vampires could blush, Aziraphale was sure this poor youngster would had been red as tomato.Murmurs erupted from the clans as the seized Newton up, many amongst the same thoghts Aziraphale had have when he gazed upon the Brujah chosen one: _he doesn’t look like a warrior, this is definitely a joke, he seems weak enough to be a thin blood_. With each new mean comment, Newton shrink a little into himself, making his height seem more like a disadvantage and reinforcing the idea that this boy was very young indeed, even more that Aziraphale had thought.

Aziraphale cleared his throat and speak directly to the young vampire, “Son, how old are you?”

“What…” Shadwell began before Newton could respond, to which Aziraphale just glared at the old vampire and let his voice got infused with the power his clan, position and age grant him. “Sergeant Shadwell, I asked the question to your chosen, not you.”

He could see how all the Brujah tense because of his tone, but he wasn’t going to back down… There was just something in that boy that spoke to a place very deep inside Aziraphale’s heart.

Newton looked up and Aziraphale just nod once, a tiny smile in his lips to encourage the latter’s to speak. “I’m 32, sir.” Small snickers and pretentious smiles appeared within the Tremere and Toreador clan, clearly thinking this guys was a bit short on the head.

“No, son, I mean your real age,” Aziraphale continued, ignoring the rest and focusing just in the young man.

“That’s…” Newton took a deep breath. “That’s my real age, sir. I was Embraced four years ago.”

So, Aziraphale had been right: this boy was uncomfortable in his own skin because he hadn’t had time to accustom to it, he was a baby, a newborn in all the sense of the word; and still, his clan had chosen him over the others, why? Aziraphale didn’t know why this shy boy was part of one the most savages and bloodthirsty clans, or how he fitted in a race of creatures that left their humanity behind, but if Mother’s advice had told him something, was that sometimes you just had to rolled with your instincts.

The Tremere and Toreador were starting to shout again, dismissing the Brujah completely and arguing who was best suited to go with Aziraphale; Gabriel was trying to bring order, while Uriel and Michelle were standing in the back, ready to jump to aid his brothers if need it to.

Aziraphale move in that moment, a quick step up front with that speed that only members of the vampire race could muster and stood in front of the boy; Newton jump a bit at the sudden movement but held Aziraphale’s gaze, and as the tiny ring in his pinky gave him a little throb (almost as if the ring also approved of his decision), Aziraphale said in a clear tone, “I’ve chosen my companion. Glad to be working with you, Newton.”

The rest of the chamber were silent once again, Shadwell smiled with all his teeth, showing his very elongated fangs, as the young vampire in front of Aziraphale manage a little nervous smile, “Call me, Newt.”

______________________________________

The Charles de Gaulle was incredibly packed as Aziraphale and Newt wait for their flight to be announced so they could board along the rest of the humans that were heading for England. They were seated in the first class area, Newt looking so out of place as he had been since Aziraphale had announced his decision.

The rest of the meeting of the Camarilla had been a blur, with the Tremere and the Toreador screaming bloody murder for the “injustice” of picking someone so young for something so important. Shadwell had started to throw threats left and right until Gabriel had brought order among the rest of the vampires, claiming that Mother had given Aziraphale her blessing and the decision must be honored by everyone.

Shadwell and the rest of the Brujah had pulled Newt into their circle and were talking above each other, trying to give the young vampire a lot of advice that Newt would probably forget after a few hours.

Agnes had signal Aziraphale to go apart with her, and Michelle had follow them as well. The Malkavian oracle had given vague instructions to Aziraphale about the ring, about how it was connected to the Descendant and how it will let him now when Aziraphale was in front of him. “We found him because a bit of his blood was spilled this night, so you should just follow where it leads you.” Agnes said.

“And where should they start? I don’t hear the ring saying a place’s name or anything,” Michelle could be rash sometimes, but she meant well.

“London,” Agens mutter. “That’s all we could see, the Great Clock and his streets.”

_Ahh, London_ , Aziraphale thought, _It has been a while_. He had been born and raised in London and still had some ties to the city, but he hadn’t go visiting in a few years. _But this isn’t a visit either_ , he recon.

“London, then. So you should leave in the first flight while there’s still darkness for you to move around. I’ll start sorting the travel arrangements,” Michelle was on the phone before she even finished that sentence. Aziraphale just smiled at her retreating back, thinking fondly about how even after all this years, she still had his back.

What follow next were a lot of quick movement, planning and making sure that Aziraphale and Newt had everything they needed to be put in the next flight leaving from Paris straight to London… The Camarilla had connections and money all around the world, so it wasn’t difficult to find two first class seats in a very convenient flight that would land in London at four a.m., giving Aziraphale and Newt enough time to reach their suite and rest for the day, so the could started their mission on Saturday night.

_Everything is moving so fast_ , Aziraphale thought as he and Newt were driven to the airport by Gabriel and Michelle, with a little suitcase and a smaller phone tucked into Aziraphale’s coat; he knew how to used a cellphone, but sometimes the fast paced inventions tended to made his head spin _. I should probably give it to Newt, just to be safe_.

When they reached the Charles de Gaulle, Michelle gave Aziraphale a hug and whisper in his ear a quick “be careful”, before going to sort everything with the flight agency, which had left Aziraphale with a very nervous Newt and a very solemn Gabriel.

As the moved deeper into the airport, Aziraphale was pretty sure this was still a bad idea, maybe he should had left Gabriel go in his place, but he kept remembering Mother’s words and how she had trusted in him.

When they reached their boarding door, Newt had said a quick goodbye and slipped inside, with Aziraphale hugging Michelle once again, assuring her he would call as soon as they reached England and then when they were in the hotel, the Michelle just turn around and move gracefully toward the exit.

“She had never been good at goodbyes,” Gabriel murmured. “She thinks this is to dangerous for the two of you, but she can’t go against Mother wishes.” He gazed toward Aziraphale and extend his hand, which the blond man took in a quick goodbye shake. “Please, find him. There’s more than you think at risk, and when you do, you know how to contact me.”

And then Aziraphale was left well alone, watching Gabriel retreat and thinking about his parting words.

Now, Aziraphale was trying to focus in his book, trying to relax, but he kept being distracted by everything in his head and by the thousand beating hearts surrounding him (everything had been so fast, he had forgotten, again, to drink some blood before the trip… He’ll have to manage until they reach England).

When, finally, his flight was announced and both men stood to board, Newt cleared his throat and asked, “Why?”

Aziraphale look up to the taller vampire and answer with another question, “Why what, son?”

The flight attendant checked his tickets and the enter the boarding bridge. “Why did you chose me? I mean, I’m flattered to be chosen by something so important, but I don’t get it.”

Aziraphale kept walking until they reached the airplane door and were lead to their seats; when both had been seated and politely reject anything to drink or eat, Aziraphale finally said, “You remind me of someone I used to know, and I think everyone deserves a chance to prove they are more than what a lot of our people made of you. You’re young, but that doesn’t make you any less, I think that it gives you an advantage… One that we might need.”

Newt just looked at the older vampire, not knowing what this mission will bring, but deciding that he was about to prove why he had been chosen for this and by his clan.

__________________________________

Tony’s head was killing him while he made his way down the one-lane road that lead from his home to lower Tadfield and his little gardening shop. Ana had insisted that he should rest all weekend, since falling from a tree and hitting your head wasn’t something to take lightly.

After Tony had regained consciousness again, he still had been laying in the back garden of the cottage, his head in his mom’s lap and with Ana expert hands taking his pulse; Adam was awake too, hugged thigh against Deirdre side while Arthur Young was tending to an ugly scratch in his son’s arm.

When Adam saw that Tony had opened his eyes, he detangled himself from his parents’ hands and run, a bit on wobbly feet, to Tony’s side. Adam’s eyes were puffy and red, which if it wasn’t indication enough that he’d been crying, his voice cracked a littler when he spoke. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Crowley… You got hurt because of me.”

If there was something that could break Tony’s heart was seeing someone he cared about crying, it had happened earlier with Ana and now it was happening with Adam, and what was worse was that Adam was ugly crying on the day of his birthday. _And that’s just wrong, nobody should cry on their birthday._

“Hey, kid,” Tony reached to wiped away the tears of the boy’s face. “I’m fine, it was just a little bump in the head. And it wasn’t your fault, I slipped and we tumble down, so don’t cry anymore, I’m fine.”

Adam kept weeping still and rest his forehead against Tony’s chest, mumbling his apologies and weeping a bit more. Tony reached to pet Adam’s soft curls when he saw that his right arm had a very nasty scratch, ripping a lot of the middle body of his snake tattoo. He sighed, but that couldn’t be helped, he would gladly would have given up an entire arm if it meant Adam was okay.

The Youngs approached and Tony signaled Ana to help him into a sitting position, with Mama Tracy still at his back, ready to catch him if he fell again; Tony just turn around, wincing a bit around the pain, and smiled a comforting smile to his mom. Since Tony was little, Mama Tracy had always been a little over protective and used to get all work up when Tony would hurt himself, even the smallest cut would have sent his mom into a frenzy. Right now, Mama Tracy was pale and her eyes kept going to Tony’s injured arm, as if seeing his boy hurt also hurt her in return.

After assuring everyone he was okay and he didn’t need to go the hospital, the Youngs deemed that it was time to take Adam home so he could rest a bit and calm himself after, what Mr. Young called, “too exciting night.” When they departed, with Tony promising to visit Adam the next day, Mama Tracy went into full doctor mode and insisted on patching and cleaning every single cut and scratch in Tony’s body, not leaving anything without mending.

Ana helped a little with her “witchy herbs”, as Tony called them, but the remedies really help with the pain and the sting of the cuts. At first the hadn’t acknowledge the pain, but now Tony realized that everything really hurt, he just was happy that he got the worse part in that fall.

When Ana and Mama Tracy, who was staying the night just in case, led Tony to his room and after his mom insisted that he drank the whole cup of hot tea she gave him (it was an old recipe that Mama Tracy always gave to Tony when he had injured himself, claiming that the concoction helped with the pain… and it did, but it still tasted as old and withered weeds), just the he remembered the eyes that had watched him and Adam from the dark and his lonely bed, Tony burrowed a bit more into his covers, trying to figure out what had exactly happened.

Now, after wrestling both his best friend and his mother so he could leave the house, he was on his way to work, not just because he had skipped Friday workload because of his terrible hangover, but because he still felt watched and follow, and maybe working on his plants and new arrivals would take his mind; he also decided to walk, since the fresh air might clear his head. _A hangover and a might-be-concussion, all in one day_ , Tony thought. _Maybe I’m really trying not to reach 30_.

Tony kept walking, enjoying the good and warm weather, realizing that the autumn would probably claim any last bit of summer any day now, but as far as he knew, everything was exactly as it was supposed to be and life was good and easy. But sometimes life has a way of turning upside down, and Tony didn’t know that this was the last day in a very long time that his life will be normal and easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit longer than the others, but I promise this is the last world-building chapter, it took me more time to laid down everything that I wanted to for the story, but the meeting between our favorite ineffable idiots is coming in the next chapter. 
> 
> Thank you again for reading and sorry for any grammatical and spelling mistakes this work may contain. 
> 
> Your kudos are great!


	4. The Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens and the lives of our not-birthday-boys is about to tangled with forces they don't understand yet. 
> 
> There's more than one meeting in this chapter and they will spark changes that can't be stop anymore.

Tony and Ana’s gardening shop was unique in such a little town as Tadfield, starting for the fact that it was the only gardening shop (some out-of-town folks used to call it “a flower shop”, which was promptly correct by every resident of Tadfield) and secondly for its incredible and beautiful design, interior and exterior: the little local that both friends had rented for the past 4 years had been a perfect copy of its neighbors in the beginning, but aided by Tony’s patient (a very severe) hand in growing incredible plants and flowers, had bloomed and transformed into an almost botanic garden, with the shop’s walls covered in climbing plants and vertical gardening, every shelf full of pots of vibrant and delicate flowers that permeated the air in sweet and soft smells, gardening tools and supplies for sale cramped every wooden table that function as little stands, with seeds and soils samples for the customers to pick from in little tiny pots in the front counter and a little alcove by the front window where costumers could sit to read a book while having one of Ana’s famous cups of tea (each tea was an original concoction that Ana invented herself… some were delicious, some were… “happy accidents, everything is a learning process”).

The outside of the store was painted a faded green, with hanging plants and flowers suspended and creating a cascade of greenery that served as a natural curtain that Tony tended every day, clipped and tied back from the front window, letting everyone know that the store was open, and above the little door hanged a hand-made sign that read _Eden._

Tony was tiding inside, since he had offered Ana to stay home so she could work on her thesis for her upcoming presentation about ancient rites and folklore and catch up to delayed work for tending the store alone the day before and having to close earlier so she could prepare everything for his drunk-ass birthday party party.

While _Eden_ was a popular business in Tadfield and the surrounding areas (London included), sometimes both friends struggled to pay all the bills by the end of the month, because even thought Tony had a degree in Botanical Sciences and could have made a good living as a researcher or a botanist in a museum, he had always loved the idea of settling down in a place, surrounding himself with the people he loved and cared about, and although sometimes it was hard and maybe harder times were coming with Ana’s degree presentation (they hadn’t discuss that yet), Tony was happy and content with what he had accomplished.

He was lost in thought when the front door opened and four well-known voices reached him behind the counter; he turned around and smiled at the young faces of the Them, leaded by Adam, as usual.

“Happy birthday, Mr. Older Cool Friend,” singsong Brian, offering Tony a half-eaten chocolate bar.

“Thank you, Mr. Younger Cool Friend,” said Tony as he accepted the gift with a smile.

“Happy birthday, Mr. Crowley,” that was Wensleydale, as formal and correct as usual, didn’t matter that Tony had asked the little urchin to called him “Tony” or just “Crowley” more than once, this kid was older in soul than him, but still, Tony smiled and thanked him.

Pepper was looking at her shoes and the tips of her ears were a little pink as she murmured under her breath, “Happy birthday, Anthony,” and turned around so fast the she almost collided with an absorbed Brian and headed straight for the little alcove, joined by Wensleydale and a sour-looking Brian, that was rubbing his ribs in the spot were Pepper had hit him. Tony couldn’t help but smile a little guiltily, knowing (thanks to Ana) that Pepper had a little crush on him, but it was endearing since it remembered him of his first crush when he was her age.

Tony shifted his gaze to Adam, who had stayed in front of the counter and was fidgeting with a little torn hole in the sleeve of his hoodie, the same hoodie Tony had gifted him and probably had torn yesterday when they fell from the tree. _That explains a little bit the look on his face_ , Tony thought as he reached across the counter and ruffled Adam’s hair.

“Hey, brat, why the long face? It’s your not-birthday today, you should be outside, celebrating and laughing, being the King of the World.”

Adam lifted his eyes and Tony realized the boy was holding back tears, of shame, of hurt, of anger… Almost every single negative emotion was written in Adam’s face and Tony didn’t like when kids looked troubled or sad, no matter what.

“Adam, hey, what’s wrong?”

Adam wiped harshly at his face with his sleeve and the look in his eyes was pure shameful anger. “I’m sorry, Crowley, I’m so sorry… You got really hurt yesterday and it’s all my fault… You hit your head, you scratched your arm very badly, your tattoo is ruined and it’s all my fault.” That last beat was almost a scream at Tony’s direction and the Them had gone terribly quiet in the seat by the window, unsure about what to do since it was very weird for Adam to cry and scream, all his cheerful and trickster side forgotten.

Tony round the counter and squatted in front of Adam, lowering a bit the boy’s arm so he could see him in the eyes, and said in a very calming and kind voice, “This wasn’t your fault, Adam, you fainted and slipped from the tree and I couldn’t catch you in time, and yes, I got a little battered but is nothing that some of the witchy weird and smelly ointments and teas from my mum and Ana can’t fix.”

Adam had stopped crying and a little smile tugged at his lips, so Tony continued, “I’m happy we celebrated our birthday together, partner, it was an amazing night and it just got a little out of hand, but every good party always gets a little wild in the end… And about the tattoo?” Tony said as he rolled his shirt sleeve and show that his arm was cover in a band. “The arm will heal and when it does, I just go to London and ask my tattoo artist to fix it… And tell you what, when it happens, how about you come along?”

Adam was opening his mouth when Brian asked, “Can we come too?”

Crowley laughed and the tension broke, with Pepper punching Briand in the arm for interrupting such a tender moment, while Wensleydale said something about how his parents would totally disagree but he could always say he was going to the library. Adam was smiling and Tony felt content with that, standing and rustling the boy’s hair once more.

“Of course you can come, it will be an adventure to London.”

The Them smiled widely and Pepper looked more pleased about the trip than any of the boys, _Maybe next year will do a bigger party and they can come too_. Tony went into the back of the shop and came back with a few biscuits that Ana used to give to the customers with their tea, wrapeed them in a napkin and gave them to the children. The Them bid him goodbye and Tony accompany them to the door, where Adam stood, unsure about if it was ok to leave and not helped Tony with the shop or something.

“Hey, none of that weird guilty thoughts, brat, your friends came to celebrate and you need to go and have fun,” said Tony, but still Adam seem unsure. “Tell you what, why don’t you go to do what you do with your friends, and when I closed the shop you drop by and we have dinner and maybe watched a movie at my place with Ana, how that sounds? I’ll walk you home after dinner.”

Adam smiled and gave a quick hug to Tony, promising him to be there at eight. Tony waved at the kids goodbye and returned to keep tiding the shop, realizing he still needed to make the inventory.

___________________________________

Aziraphale and Newt arrived at their suite in central London with a few minutes to spared before sunrise, which gave them enough time to grab a quick drink from the stashed mini fridge and then both went down into the dreamless sleep.

Aziraphale woke up in the massive suite bed and stretched out of habit, sensing with something more than his normal senses to try and guessed the hour… Some vampires acquired and nourished with the years the ability to wake a few moments before the Sun was completely gone from the sky, and Aziraphale had known of very old and powerful vampires that could withstand being awake during some hours of the day, which was amazing but the blond vampire knew he was years away from that still, because even when he wasn’t a newborn, he wasn’t that old.

He got up from the bed and guessed that there might be five to ten minutes until the Sun went completely down, so he decided to take a quick shower and changed his rumpled traveling clothes before Newt raised in the next room.

It didn’t matter how much time had passed, Aziraphale still loved to indulge in the various pleasures his eternal existence could grant him: from long warm baths to reading countless books during winter nights by the fire, he just loved to have the time to enjoyed everything in the world (it was one of the few things that made up for the fact that he could no longer go for long walks in the warm Sun or eat anything other than blood… Aziraphale still missed the flavor of hot cocoa), and even thought he wanted to spent hours soaking in a hot tub, he knew he didn0t had the time right now and if they didn’t found the Descendant, he would never had it again.

After a quick shower and a pristine change of clothes, Aziraphale step out of his room and into the common (and very expensive) area, where he made a beeline to the kitchen area to start heating a few packs of the stashed blood in the fridge… Michelle had really outdone herself by having everything ready in such short notice, but with the Ventrue clan connections, little was impossible.

Aziraphale was seeping his hot cup of blood when Newt finally emerged from his room, still in the same clothes as yesterday and with a very wild hair, with his deep blue eyes showing the signs of alert and hunger… _He really looks like a Brujah right now_ , Aziraphale thought as he handed a second cup to the young vampire.

When both vampires had finished their “breakfast”, Newt asked, “So, where are we going? You think it will be easy to find the Descendant in such a big city as London?”

Aziraphale shifted his gazed to Newt and almost sighed at the mess his younger companion had made of himself while feeding, regarding the little drops of blood in Newt’s shirt and across his upper lip.

“I don’t know if he’s in London or not, Agnes just claimed to have sense a lead in this city, but the best we could do is go out there a see where the ring will lead us.”

“How does that work, anyway?” asked Newt. “I still don’t get it.”

“It’s… hard to explain and a bit odd, I’m afraid, but it’s like the ring is “pulling” me in the direction of the Descendant, so I guess we should just start walking in that direction,” Aziraphale pointed at some south point and Newt nodded.

“I think walking might be a little counterproductive, maybe we should check if the Camarilla arranged a transport for us… Don’t worry, I can drive while you lead us,” Newt smile, showing his very sharp fangs which were still visible after the feeding. “Why don’t you go ahead and I’ll catch up with you in the front, I’ll just change my shirt really quickly.”

The young man walked back to his room and Aziraphale had to repressed the need to asked him if he intended to take a shower before he changed, but decided against it considering it was very rude… Vampires didn’t produce body fluids as humans, since all their body fluids was composed entirely by blood: they cried bloody tears, their mouths were moisturized by a saliva that was half a drug agent half aphrodisiac and if the managed to perspired, little buds of blood would appear instead of sweat.

_But well, not every vampire thinks like you do_ , thought Aziraphale as he headed for the door and reminded himself that his standards, sometimes, were still a little bit human.

__________________________________

Adam had spent an incredible afternoon with his friends, going from one end to Tadfield to the other, they had raced deep within the woods and had gone for ice-cream latter on, and although the Them claimed they were “too old” for some games, they had reacted many of their must famous childhood adventures; when his cellphone ping announcing it was nearly time to go back and meet with Crowley, he announced the Them they all had to be on their way home.

Pepper, Brian and Wensleydale didn’t argue, knowing that Adam had been really upset about what had happened last night in his birthday dinner with Crowley, so they wanted to made his friend happy in any way they could. When the four of them started to walking back to central Tadfield, the Sun was already going low in the horizon and the shadows started to elongated, Adam couldn’t help but think about what he had seen last night, it had been just a moment before his mind decided to shot down, but he could have sworn someone was standing on the highest branches of the trees in front of Crowley and Ana’s home.

Adam shivered and looked up at the treetops, almost wanting to tell their friends what he had saw, but deciding against it… He didn’t need to be scared, it probably had been a trick of the eye or a possum had had its eyes reflect the light or something.

When the Them reached central Tadfield, everyone took different routes to their homes and bid each other goodnight, with his three friends wishing him a happy birthday once more. Adam started walking in direction of _Eden_ , giddy with the feeling of spending a fun night with Crowley and Ana, eating some of the leftover from last night and maybe even convincing them of watching something scary for the movie night.

“Excuse me,” whispered a quiet and calm voice at his back, and Adam, as lost in thought as he was, almost fell in his need to whirled around at the sound of someone he hadn’t heard approaching.

The person in front of him was a boy, maybe about his age and a little bit taller than Adam, he had a wild black hair that reached his shoulders, that was covered in little twigs and leaves, as if the boy had laid down to take a nap in the forest floor, he was a bit pale but what cough Adam’s attention and almost stole his breath away were the boy’s eyes: they were big and luminous, extremely clear in the darkening evening and had a weird color, almost has if mercury had been poured into them… The first thought Adam had was _BEAUTIFUL_ and felt a hollow in his gut, like if he was falling through an opening.

The boy was still standing there and Adam realized he was staring a bit open mouthed, so he cleared his throat and said, “Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Adam said a little too hurriedly.

The other boy seemed amused, but he didn’t smile when he continued, “I’m sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” the boy had a very suave voice, just a few notes short of hitting puberty. “I just wanted to asked you if I could come with you tonight.”

This time, Adam really went open mouthed, not knowing how to answer to the request of this very strange, wild and very cute boy. He tried saying something once, twice and then he finally muttered, “I’m sorry, but do we know each other or…?”

The boy smiled this time and Adam thought that his teeth looked kind of weird when the boy said, in much calmer and gentle voice, “Of course we know each other, Adam, don’t you remember? We been friends since we were kids but we haven’t seen each other for years… I’m Warlock, remember?”

Adam’s mind felt full of cotton, as if he was floating, but it wasn’t a bad feeling… No, not a bad feeling at all, although he knew there was something weird here, something weird in how Warlock’s teeth seem bigger, something weird in why he couldn’t remember this boy from before, knowing that he could have never forget someone like him…

But it made sense, they haven’t seen each other in a while and people change, this was his friend from his childhood and Adam had missed him.

“Of course I remember you” said Adam. “Why didn’t you came to see me before?”

“I tried, but it was kind of hard getting away from… them, you know?” Warlock seemed sad and almost scared, and Adam didn’t want for his friend to be sad or scared, so he just smiled at Warlock and hold his hand to him.

“I know, parents can be a little strict sometimes,” Adam said as Warlock reached for his hand and hold his fingers in an almost delicate way. “But hey, glad you could make it, now we can go and be with Crowley and Ana together.”

Adam turned to start walking again, tugging Warlock’s hand so they could go together to see Crowley… He couldn’t wait for Warlock to meet him.

______________________________________

Tony had finished with the store duties, had made the inventory, got ready the shipments for Monday morning and now was sitting, a bit restless, in the alcove by the front door waiting for Adam; he kept unlocking his phone, checking the time every few minutes, a bit worry even thought that it was only 8:15, but he couldn’t help it, since Adam was the most punctual boy he knew.

_Calm down, he probably lost track of time with his friends_ , thought Tony as he fished out his phone and unlocked it one more time, pulling a little from the small black piercing in his right eyebrow, growing even more restless; Tony couldn’t explain it, but he had started to feel nervous and anxious when the Sun started to go down an hour ago and now, Adam was late and he felt an uncomfortable pressure in the pit his stomach.

Deciding than maybe go looking for Adam wasn’t a bad (or creepy) idea at all, he stood up and was shrugging his jacket in when the front door opened and Tony turn with a sarcastic retort to the little brat when his breath caught in his throat and he felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

There, standing by Adam, was a boy Tony had never seen in his life: he was probably Adam’s age and the brown haired boy seem completely at ease around him, but Tony felt something… odd in the child. He couldn’t put his finger on, but it was something that made his skin crawl a little and force a fight-or-flight response, and although Tony wasn’t a violent person, especially around and at kids, something in his heart was urging him to stand his ground and protect Adam.

Adam walked in further into de shop, with the strange boy trailing after him and Tony forced a smile at them. “Y-You’re late, brat, Ana would have my head if we are late for dinner.”

Adam smiled at him, with an almost dreamy expression in his face. “I’m sorry, I run into Lock and we lost track of time catching up,” the boy gesture for this Lock to come over. “This is Warlock, we are childhood friends and he just recently came to Tadfield for a quick visit.”

The explanation seem… valid, but there was something off about how Adam had phrased it, as if was a memorized line for a play, convincing enough but with a fakeness underneath.

Tony just blame it to the tiredness of a day of work and a very recently hit to head, so he took a step forward (with all his nerves still on alert) and reached a hand to Warlock. “Hey, Warlock, I’m Anthony Crowley, but you can call me Tony.” The boy’s eyes seem to shine when he went for Tony’s hand and the redhead needed all his strength to not pull away.

Warlock shook Tony’s hand a smiled a polite close-mouthed smile, and then his eyes went to Adam, as if requesting something. “Crowley, I invited Lock to come and dine with us, he doesn’t have any other friends in town and I figured he would like to meet you and Ana.”

Tony’s inner voice, one that he didn’t quite listen to all the time, was telling him this was a bad idea, but then he remembered himself that he once had been the weird little kid without friends too and he would have loved to met someone like Adam back in the day when he and his mom would move around the UK all the time.

“Of course he can come, the more the merrier,” said Tony, and he could have swear that Warlock’s eye shine with a weird light at the invitation. _He’s probably just hungry_.

Tony called Ana ahead of their arrival so she could set another place at the table for Warlock. “So, who is this kid? I don’t recall Adam telling us about him before today”

The three of them were walking down the winding path towards the cottage and Adam was filling the quiet night with many stories and jokes while Warlock just nodded and smiled a little at the other boy’s loud-but-not-loud-in-a-bad-way voice.

Tony shrugged as if Ana could see the gesture and just said, “You know how kids are, Annie; maybe Adam just didn’t remember about Warlock until their paths crossed again… You and I are a good testament of that.”

Ana just laugh at the other end and agreed with him, remembering that their paths had crossed very briefly in a bus stop when both were young, she on her way to continued her vacation with her parents and he on his way to a new home with his mom, and then when they met again in college; Ana liked to say that it was thing about destiny and kismet and the stars aligning and what not, Tony just thought he was very lucky to have her in his life.

“We’ll be there in five, is mum still with you?” Tony asked as he followed the two boys in front of them.

“No, she went home after the afternoon tea to grade some papers about _Romeo & Juliet,” _Ana said ( _bleak and gloomy, that’s what that play is_ , thought Crowley). “But she’ll be coming by tomorrow to helped me with something in my thesis and to checked on you. She told to tell you _I love you, sweet pie_ ”

Tony rolled his eyes at Ana’s teasing tone, but still smiled; he said goodbye to Ana and walked a little faster to catch up to the two boys, they were a little less than 200 meters from the front door but Tony already could smell the lasagna in the air and his stomach rumbled with hunger.

______________________________________

Ana was already at the front door and could discern the three silhouettes of the boys coming her way, so she lifted a hand in a welcoming wave as Tony reached the wooden fence and stepped inside their front garden, followed by Adam and, who Ana assumed, was the boy’s friend, Warlock.

She reached to hug Tony and placed a quick kiss in his best friend’s cheek, turning around to greet the kids when she froze in place… Adam was radiant, as usual, his aura the color of the vivid forest around them, but the kid next to him, this Warlock boy, was void, void of warm and color, like he didn’t exist.

Tony used to tease Ana about her so called “witchy powers”, but she didn’t mind that he didn’t believe since he still humored her when she wanted to sew some charms in his clothes or put some protection salves in his coffee, and she enjoyed his puzzlement when she read the aura of those around her and knew exactly what they were feeling.

And now, her witchy powers were all over the place about this boy at her doorstep, she almost wanted to drag both Adam and Tony inside, not knowing why she was so sure Warlock couldn’t follow… But Adam seem alright and Tony, although a little tense, didn’t seemed unfazed by the dark haired boy, so she squared her shoulder and said in what she hoped was a welcoming voice, “Hey, boys, hope you’re hungry… come on in!” When the last word left her lips, Ana almost wished she hadn’t said anything.

The dinner consisted of the reheated leftovers from last night and both Crowley and Adam attacked their servings with an almost vicious hunger, and Ana was also a bit ravenous but control herself enough to still eat in a proper “lady like manner” as her mom had tough her; it wasn’t until her second serving of Shepherd’s Pie when she realized Warlock hadn’t touch any of the food in front of him and hadn’t drink any of the bubble soda in his glass.

“Warlock,” Ana said and Tony and Adam looked over to the dark haired boy’s place, noticing he wasn’t eating. “Aren’t you hungry?”

Warlock looked at Ana and, for a moment, he looked almost… sad, but then the moment was gone and Warlock smiled as if apologizing. “Not really,” he said. “I ate something before meeting Adam.”

Adam and Tony had put their forks down, almost guiltily, realizing that they had been completely rude to the poor boy and that broke a bit the tension.

“Well,” said Ana. “I can bring you a slice of cake or a brownie, they are incredibly delicious.”

Warlock shake his head and smiled again, “No, thank you, I’m really not hungry.”

The tension was coming back, and feeling it, Tony cleared his throat as he served himself a third slice of lasagna, “I guess your parents should have insisted you to have dinner before leaving,” he said. “Speaking of which, should we call them to let them know you’re here?”

“Don’t worry, Crowley,” this was Adam. “We called them earlier and they said it was fine that Warlock came to diner with us.”

Ana became wary again, because even when what Adam had said made sense, it didn’t quite felt… real. And for the look Tony was giving the boy, he seemed to notice something odd, too.

Both friends sent each other questioning glances, but decided against upsetting the boys, so they continued eating, making small conversation, while Warlock sat there and kept watching them eat.

___________________________________

After they finished eating, the four had moved to the living room where they had discussed for an almost half-hour about which movie they were going to watch: Adam had insisted in a horror movie, while Ana wanted something more fantasy inclined and Tony had voted with both hands for a James Bond Movie; but finally, Warlock had settle the argument when he had voted for horror, saying that he didn’t mind a good scare.

After the initial wariness had fade, Tony realized that Warlock was okay if a bit quiet, as he had seen the boy sit and absorbed the discussion and every reason the three of them had given him so he would choose their movie. _Maybe he’s just lonely_ , Tony thought.

Adam had told Ana and Tony that Warlock, when the other had gone outside to tell his parents his was staying for a movie, moved a lot because his parents were very deep into politics, so he didn’t have many friends and that’s why he hadn’t been in Tadfield for a long time.

They settled in the middle couch, turn off the lights and Tony pushed play and the first minutes of _The Conjuring 2_ started rolling. Tony wasn’t very fond of based-in-real-events-stories, specially if those events had occurred in the UK, but he wasn’t about to chickened out or he would never be abled to escaped Ana’s side comments. 

When the scene where the crosses turn upside down finally came, Tony was ready to bolt for his room and hid under his blankets, but before he could flinch or move in any direction, Adam curled against his side and started shacking uncontrollably; Tony, incredibly grateful for the distraction, paused the movie and moved a bit to see that Adam was paper-white and was biting his lip hard enough to draw blood.

“Adam,” said Tony with fear in his voice. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Ana had gone to turn one the lights and now was squatting before the brown haired boy, reaching to touch his forehead, which was covered in sweat. “Adam, can you hear me?”

Adam was still shaking and Tony was about to call an ambulance or Adam’s parents or someone when Adam said, with a broken voice. “I’m okay, it’s just… my head hurts a lot and a feel really dizzy.”

As on queue, Adam arched forward and throw up all his dinner at Ana’s feet, but before Tony could panic even more, Ana was in motion, laying down Adam in the couch (Warlock had move out the way at some point) and going to wet a towel in the kitchen sink; meanwhile, Tony and Warlock were standing at each end of the living room, staring at Adam pale face.

Ana returned with the towel and some crush leaves that he put inside the towel, before putting it in Adam’s forehead. Tony was speechless, but Ana had always been like this, calm and collect even in the face of an emergency, and he was so grateful for it.

“Is he… okay?” Warlock asked from his corner of the room, which made him looked more like a kid than ever.

“Yeah, he probably just has some light food poisoning or a stomachache because of something he ate,” Ana was checking Adam pulse while she pushed back his sweaty curls. “But I think is best if we don’t move him or he might throw up again. Tony, why don’t you call the Youngs and tell them Adam is going to spend the night here? Just, don’t tell them about him being sick or they might lose it.” She then turned to address Warlock. “You can spend the night here, too; you can take my room.”

Warlock was pale, even paler than before, but his voice didn’t weaver when he said, “No, thank you, I must be going home now or they might notice…” the boy stilled himself. “I mean; my parents might not let me come back tomorrow if I don’t get home.”

Tony and Ana crossed another questioning look, before she said, “Okay, don’t worry, but maybe Tony should walk you back to Tadfield, just in case you get lost or you ate something that might make you sick, too.”

Warlock seemed to be about to counter that offer when Tony grab his jacket from the rack by the entrance and opened the door. “Come on, kid. I’ll walk you home and I won’t take no for an answer.”

______________________________________

It was almost midnight, between having dinner, the argument about the movie, watching half of it and tending to Adam, the night had come and swept every surface into darkness; Tony was walking side by side with Warlock, because even when Tony had offered to take the boy in his car, Warlock had denied the offer, saying he liked the night and preferred to walk.

They were walking in complete silence and though Tony had never had an issue with darkness, he still felt restless and now that he was alone with the quiet boy, the wariness had returned and his nerves were on edge. _It’s for that fucking movie, get your shit together,_ he thought.

Warlock was walking with his sight up front, as he could make the road and everything around them, but it was almost pitch black, so Tony assumed the boy was just deep in thought. “He’ll be okay; you know? Ana has an almost magical hand at healing people,” Tony told the boy. “You’ll see; tomorrow morning Adam will be as new.”

Warlock stop walking and turned to stare at Tony, his eyes were almost shinning in the dark; Tony took and involuntary step back, because Warlock had move without making any noise, even though the ground was covered in grass and leaves, and his movement had been to graceful and quick.

The boy closed the distance between himself and Tony in a quick step and his voice sound different in the empty space of the night, “I didn’t want to do it, you know? But they told me to find him and now that I have, I need to tell them.” Warlock was making no sense, who was “them”? His parents? What was going on? “But I don’t want to tell them, but I also don’t want to be alone anymore…”

Before Warlock could say anything else, something hit Tony from behind, the world tumbled sideways and he was in the ground with an extra weigh at his back; Tony heard a low hiss, then he felt more than heard a quick movement and then a gentle hand was turning him and the most beautiful voice Tony had ever heard said, “Oh my, I’m so sorry, dear boy. Are you okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I made a lot of changes along the way and end up writing the longest chapter yet. There's new POV introduced and a known presence that will set everything in motion. 
> 
> This work needs revision and might contain orthography and grammatical errors. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and for all your kudos. Next chapter will be up next Thursday.


	5. Strangers in the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A faithful encounter between a human and a vampire in a lonely rural road at midnight sparks something within them and in the world that surrounds them. 
> 
> Things are in motion and Tony is about to learn that, sometimes, meeting strangers in the night might change you whole life.

Aziraphale and Newt had left London around 9 o’clock, after the staff of the hotel had procured them with a very new, very expensive car. _Michelle really doesn’t understand the meaning of the word inconspicuous,_ thought Aziraphale as he fastened his seatbelt.

At first, both vampires thought they might be scouring the city, but as the pull in Aziraphale’s hand made them go farther south, the blond vampire realized he had been right, London was just a pit stop in their journey, which also made him a bit uncomfortable, because if the morning caught them far from the hotel, they might have to go underground to avoid sunlight and that didn’t suit right with him. It was a common enough practiced for the most “savages” clans of the Camarilla, going into the ground, that is, but Aziraphale had never had the need to, and he didn’t really want to do it and ruin his clothes, considering his jacket had been with him for more than 50 years and it was a very beloved piece of his wardrobe.

_Maybe I should had come in jeans and a sweatshirt_ , he glanced at Newt and his very comfty and neutral attire, which made him seem as the student he probably was when he had been Embraced.

Aziraphale wasn’t someone who liked to pried in people’s lives, but he was a curious creature by nature and the presence of someone so young as Newt in the clans reunion still stirred something in him.

“So, Newton, if I might ask…” Aziraphale started.

“How someone so young as me end up in a council meeting as important as the one where we met?” Newt asked, a little shyly but still amiable.

“I’m sorry if I’m meddling in something private,” Aziraphale kicked himself internally and admonished himself for prying into this young man’s life.

“It’s okay,” Newt said. “Atti… I mean, Sergeant Shadwell insisted that I should be present, since I’m his only childe and my age might seem a disadvantage for the clan, so he asked to go with them so I could understand how the Camarilla operates.”

Well, this was new information for Aziraphale… He knew that, apart from the Ventrue, the other clans needed express permission to embrace a mortal and turn them into a vampire, but Shadwell was older than Aziraphale, so the blond thought the he might had had more than one childe.

Newt seem to understand Aziraphale’s silence, because he continued, “Sergeant Shadwell had the permission for an embrace for years, but he insisted that he’ll do it when he found someone worthy of the clan,” that last part sounded a bit more personal than Aziraphale would like, besides, the blond vampire wasn’t all that open about his own embrace to be honest, so he decided to let it slide.

“And I’m sure he found someone worthy, dear boy,” Aziraphale said and then asked Newt to turn left.

____________________________________

The little town where they were now was called “Tadfield” and it was one of those cute traditional English towns in the middle of the woods, far away from the pollution and noise from the great cities; they had stopped there, since the ring had stopped pulling and now it was kind of beating in Aziraphale’s finger.

It was almost midnight, since the ring wasn’t a compass and Newt and Aziraphale had made a few wrong turns here and there, but they still had a few hours before sunrise to scout the town and, if they didn’t find anything, come back tomorrow to keep searching.

“So…” Newt said as they walked into the town, deciding on leaving the car parked on the curb so it didn’t raise any suspicions. “When we find the Descendant, what’s the plan? Are we gonna ask him to come along? Compel him to? Knock him out?” that last question sounded a bit unsure, but Aziraphale understood the feelings of the young vampire, he wasn’t all into using brute force or kidnaping an innocent human.

Many of his kindred would probably laugh at how _human_ Aziraphale was sometimes, but even thought he was a predator and a creature that lived in the shadows, he still resembled a human man and he would act as one as long as he deemed necessary ( _necessary_ was most of the time, unless there was instant peril or danger ahead).

“Maybe we can enthrall him to come along, but it must be very subtle,” Aziraphale said as he went around a little puddle, while Newt jump over it with the unnatural grace of their kind. “We don’t want to cause the poor fellow an aneurism.”

Enthrall or compel a human it was a very delicate process, since the mind is a deep array of connections, emotions and memories, force something into it might cause a strand and, if not done correctly, could also cause severe brain damage, paranoia or memory loss, and since the Camarilla needed this Descendant safe and sound to… to do whatever only he could do with The First Blood, the best Aziraphale could do was “suggesting” that maybe he could take a nice vacation abroad.

“Aziraphale,” said Newt. “What happens if this Descendant is, you know, very young?”

The blond vampire had thought about it, he had thought about all the things that could go wrong in this mission, but he needed to remain calm and believed that once they find him, he would know what to do. _Sometimes, when your mind is troubled, following your heart can help you decided,_ Mother’s words were a mantra Aziraphale had been channeling since they left France and, hopefully, one that could help him now.

“Let’s just focus on finding him for now,” Aziraphale said. “The ring stopped pulling when we got out of the car and now is just kind of… throbbing. He must be nearby.”

“And how do you think we will recognize him? Will he smell different? Do we… have to taste him or something?”

Aziraphale wasn’t quite sure about this either, the Descendant was entirely human, but since his blood was the secret to fix this whole mess and he was a direct descendant from the First Vampire, maybe he would smell different or maybe he would look different or maybe Aziraphale would simply know it was him… _Or maybe, a big ray of light will fall on top of the Descendant’s head,_ Aziraphale sighed internally.

“I don’t really know, my dear boy,” Aziraphale said to Newt. “Maybe some sort of instinct will pull us towards him.”

Newt didn’t seem convinced, but he smiled nonetheless. “Maybe,” the young vampire said. “Well, if there is indeed an instinct that will lead us, maybe we should separate and try to cover more ground… Scout the town, get to now the lay out, maybe try to estimate how many people live here. I don’t mind going door to door asking, but maybe it will be quicker if get to know the town a bit faster.”

Aziraphale had to admit this was a good idea, maybe Newt didn’t have an enchanted ring, but he was young and a vampire raised with the Brujah ways, so he accepted the plan and agreed to called Newt if he found something or simply reconvene in the car at 3 am if they didn’t, so they could go back to London and come back tomorrow.

Newt sprinted towards the line of trees, gaining speed and jumping to land on top of one of the highest branches and then, he started jumping from tree to tree, finally able to be who he was since the whole town seemed to be asleep and the Masquerade had fallen to leave way for the night creatures.

Aziraphale smiled a little, inhaled the clean air of the country side and decided he might as well leave his most inner nature come to surface… It has been a while since he had acted as a complete vampire.

_____________________________________

Aziraphale was going south, jumping from branch to branch, imitating the way Newt had decided to travel, far away from the ground and enjoying the cool air; the ring was still silently throbbing in his finger, so that was a good sign.

He had seen few houses this way, just a long winding road that seemed to lead to a little cottage with the lights still on, so he stood still in his branch and reconsidered if it was wise to go that way. _Maybe is the retirement home of some elderly couple_ , Aziraphale thought, deciding that he might just checked it out to be sure.

He was preparing himself to jump again when he heard voices, young voices coming from under him, so he squatted and let his sharp gaze discerned to whom the voices belong to.

“He’ll be okay; you know? Ana has an almost magical hand at healing people,” Aziraphale connected the voice (the deep, almost velvety voice) to a young man with fiery red hair, dressed in dark clothes which made him almost disappeared into the night. The young man was talking to a boy, maybe a teenager.

The blond vampire was about to pull himself further into the foliage of the trees, when the smell hit him… The boy accompanying the young man wasn’t a boy at all, it was a vampire, a fledgling, and he smelled… wrong.

Questions went up in Aziraphale’s mind: Why there was another vampire in such a small place as Tadfield? There were any more? How old was this fledgling? And why did he smell like that, like wrongness and stale blood?

“I didn’t want to do it, you know? But they told me to find him and now that I have, I need to tell them.” The fledgling was advancing towards the young man, ready to pounced “But I don’t want to tell them, but I also don’t want to be alone anymore…”

Aziraphale didn’t know what made him do what he did next, maybe he was just trying to avoid unnecessary attention by preventing the dead of the young man or maybe he just wanted more information from the fledgling or maybe… Aziraphale just jumped, trying to land in front of the young vampire, but a miscalculation had him tumbling against the back of the redheaded man.

He felt as the breath was knock out of the young man, his arms and legs tangling together, while the young fledgling bared his fangs at the new threat and vanish into the night. Aziraphale should had followed him, but then the man he had used as an air mattress let out a low “Ouch!”

Aziraphale moved quickly from the back of his, well, victim and used more strength than someone who looked like a librarian could muster to turn around the you man and stood frozen.

This redheaded man was, albeit his face was streaked with mud and a few leaves were stuck in his hair, beautiful; he had regal features, sharp cheekbones, a straight nose and a very soft looking mouth, which now was starting to spurt little beats of mud that caught in his teeth when he fell face first.

Aziraphale composed himself and asked in a measured voice, “Oh my, I’m so sorry, dear boy. Are you okay?”

And then, his eyes meet the redheaded gaze and Aziraphale was sure dawn had come early: the eyes of this stranger were the warmest color of gold, almost as if the Sun himself had melted and now lived in those eyes, and Aziraphale stood there, gawking and trying to form a coherent thought.

The stranger, almost shyly, was starting to stand up from the ground, rubbing the spot in his forehead where he had hit the ground. He was really tall and lean, one of his eyebrows sported a little black piercing as both of his earlobes.

_Beautiful, exquisite_ , Aziraphale thought as, suddenly, he felt really thirsty, his throat incredibly dry considering he had fed earlier.

The young man with the eyes of the Sun stopped rubbing his forehead and then talked with that deep, velvety voice again, “What the fuck, man? Where the hell did you came from?”

_______________________________________

Tony tried not to curse often (his mum didn’t really approve of foul language), but considering he had been suffering from major headaches and hits to the head for the last three days, he assumed this was a very good time to start cursing to high heavens.

His forehead had crashed first and with force against the ground, and he was feeling a little dizzy and very annoyed against the very cute and very out-of-place man in front of him. _Where did he came from? He just knocked me out of my feet altogether_ , Tony thought as he assed the blond man in front of him.

He was a bit shorter than Tony, his blond curls merely reaching Tony’s eyes, and had a very… cherubic face, almost angelic: full lips, round cheeks, small nose and the clearest blue eyes Tony had ever seen, they even seem to shine a bit in the darkness of the night.

He was also dressed as a very conservative gentleman or a very refined teacher, Tony didn’t know which one of the two suit him better, with a cream coat, plain slacks and a bow tie, this man was on the side of buff, but not heavy or fat, just buff and (Tony couldn’t deny it) looked incredibly huggable; still, this strange man would have looked out of place in such a rural place like Tadfield during day time, but at night, it was almost surreal.

The weirdest thing was that Tony felt a bit… wary, almost in the same way he had felt towards Warlock when he first met him that night, it was something in the way this blond man kept his eyes on him, as he was trying to engulf every single part of Tony…

_Wait_ , Tony thought, _WARLOCK!_

The redhead, ignoring a little voice within himself that told him otherwise, whirled around and turn his back to the newcomer, searching for the boy he was supposed to be taking home, but he couldn’t find him, not a single trace remained of his companion. _Shit, shit, shit_.

“Excuse me, dear boy, is everything okay? If you are hurting terribly from the head, I can assure you that if you sit down for a bit you will feel better.”

Tony whirled around, seeing that the blond man was still there, standing out like a sore thumb in the middle of the road, still watching Tony with the same intensity. Tony took a tentative step back, something inside of him telling him he shouldn’t be here, alone and in the dark, with this man.

“Wh-who are you?” Tony asked, clearing his throat and standing as tall as he was, trying to made his high a silent threat.

“Terribly sorry, my dear boy,” said the stranger in that very particular odd way. “I wasn’t trying to jump you or anything, I just seemed to have lost my way in these roads and, clumsy as I am, I barreled into you when I was trying to find my way back to town. I’m Aziraphale Frye, at your service, and I just arrived at this town with my nephew to try and sigh see some of this small English towns on our way to London, but we kind of lost track of time and of each other.”

The blond man, Aziraphale, smiled with tight lips, but it seemed genuine enough for Crowley to relaxed, but just a little bit.

“No worries, man,” Tony said. “This woods and roads become a labyrinth after dark if you’re not accustomed to them, so if you just follow this road north, you will reach central Tadfield in ten, fifteen minutes tops. Now, if you don’t mind, I must run ahead and try to find the boy who was with me… The poor brat would probably think I was being mugged or something,” that last part was a bit of a jab against this weirdly polite man.

“Oh, I wouldn’t mind about that boy, he probably is home by now,” Aziraphale said in a quiet voice.

Tony turned to look at the stranger a bit annoyed, “Hey, dude, I don’t know who you think you are but…”

Aziraphale had move and now was standing directly in front of Tony, the blond man’s eyelashes almost a whisper away from Tony’s mouth, and he was staring really deep into the redhead’s eyes. “You know he’s home, don’t you? You take him there, remember? You were coming back when we ran into each other.”

Tony’s mind was screaming, trying to reconcile what this man was saying to him and what he knew… He hadn’t take Warlock all the way back, had he? But he must have, since he was all alone in the road that lead back to the cottage when he met Aziraphale, right? Yes, Warlock was probably now getting into bed and Tony was coming back because he needed to be home as soon as possible.

Tony blinked once, twice and Aziraphale was still there, smiling at him and his mouth was moving, but Tony didn’t seem to understand what he was saying. “I’m sorry, what was that? I spaced out a bit back there.”

“No worries, I was just saying that maybe I should walk you home, after all, it’s my fault that you hit your head and I wouldn’t like for you to tumble over…”

“Anthony, the name’s Anthony Crowley,” Tony said, feeling like he was trying to float above sluggish water. “But you can call me Tony.”

“Anthony,” Aziraphale rolled every single syllable of his name like he was tasting them. “Please, I insist on walking you home, seeing that you were walking alone and so was I.”

Tony’s mind screamed again, trying to remind him of something… something he was forgetting, but the pain behind his eyes was becoming unbearable, so he just nodded at the blond man in front of him to follow. “My house is that way.”

_______________________________________

Aziraphale was walking with one attentive eye in the lean figure of Anthony Crowley next to him, seeing as the poor boy was tumbling as if he was completely intoxicated. _I took a big risk by enthralling him without know his name_ , Aziraphale thought.

Normally, it was easier to compel or enthrall a human whose name you knew, since their minds would be more open to suggestions if they felt they were being talked by someone familiar, but since Anthony was so keen to go looking for a creature that could have easily hunt him down, Aziraphale hadn’t had a choice.

_Well, he’s still walking down a lonely road with you, the same type of monster you were trying to protect him from._

“Hey,” Aziraphale had been so focused in his thoughts that he hadn’t notice that Anthony had stop walking and was now talking to him. “I’m sorry about how I acted back there… It’s just that you scared the shit out of me.”

“Oh, no, dear boy, I’m the one who should be sorry,” Aziraphale said. “I’m just extremely clumsy and I didn’t know how to turn the lamp on my phone.”

Anthony smiled, just a little, but Aziraphale could almost imagine how his young face would transform when he smiled for real, and he almost couldn’t wait to see it. _Stop it, it’s not like you’ll be seeing him again._

“Well, thank you again for accompanying me. Maybe all the hits to the head I’ve received this past few days are starting to affect my memory.”

They had reached the small cottage Aziraphale had spotted earlier, which was still alight from inside and gave the whole scenery an almost magical look. Aziraphale wished he would be able to settle in a place like this, so quiet and beautiful, so far away from everything that was happening around him and his world.

Anthony had a hand against the little wooden door of the fence, but before he could push it open, he turned around and extended a hand towards Aziraphale; the blond man stared at it, Anthony’s long and nimble fingers would have probably been the envy of every alive pianist, and Aziraphale also notice that the young man’s fingernails were painted in black nail polish, which made Anthony’s skin look a bit paler and enchanted in the dark.

“Lend me you phone, I’ll activated the lamp for you,” Anthony said.

Aziraphale pulled his cellphone from the inside pocket of his jacket and passed it to the young man, who, after a few agile moves of his fingers, turned on the little lamp at the back of the phone.

“Here you go, now you won’t go tripping against people backs,” Anthony said in a teasing tone.

Aziraphale smiled, taking much care of not showing his teeth, and reach for the phone and that’s when he noticed: the ring had stopped throbbing in his finger. When had it stop? When they reached this cottage? Before? It didn’t matter, since Aziraphale knew what it meant… The Descendant was very close.

Anthony was already half way in the front garden when Aziraphale went after him, stopping short before stepping on the threshold, the barrier that prevented his kind from entering a home now in full force in front of him.

“Excuse me, Anthony,” Aziraphale called, trying to sound calm and collect. Tony stopped and turned around, waiting for Aziraphale to continued. “I’m quite sure I don’t have the right to ask you this but you’re the only person I know from this little town and I would really love to sight see it with my nephew again…”

Aziraphale didn’t know what prompted to asked, but it felt right to him “Would you mind to give us a tour around this lovely town if we come back?”

Anthony was quiet, assessing him and maybe trying to come up with some excuse to avoid being with him, but Aziraphale really hoped he would agree, because in that way he could maybe gain entrance to this little cottage and then see who was inside.

“I don’t know what you expect to “sight see” in a place so small like Tadfield,” Anthony said. “But I guess that as long as you promise not to attack me again, I can arrange a quick tour tomorrow afternoon for you and your nephew.”

“Oh really?” Aziraphale almost went into fog from the excitement.

“Yeah, tomorrow is Sunday and people in this part of England really enjoyed having tea and walking around to rest and relax from a hard work’s week. So tell you what, why don’t you come back tomorrow around… six and…”

“Terribly sorry, Anthony, and since I’m the one asking the favor I know this would sound completely petty from me, but me and my nephew had… some business in London that would only allow us to come at night, maybe around eight o’clock.”

Anthony stared at him, and Aziraphale was sure he was about to flip him off or something, but then he just shrugged and said, “Sure, man, whatever’s best suit you… I mean, you must be some kind of big shots or something, right? Collectors, maybe? Scholars?

“Something like that.”

Anthony made his way back to Aziraphale and plucked the phone from his hand, his fingers flying across the screen. “This is my number, when you arrive tomorrow just let me know and I’ll meet you at Central Tadfield for a tour, how’s that sound?”

Aziraphale accepted the phone back and there it was, a full smile in the most beautiful face he had seen in years; if his heart could still beat, Aziraphale could have sworn it would had skip a beat or two. “Perfect, actually. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night, Aziraphale, made sure you don’t trip into some other random person on the way back. See you tomorrow,” Anthony was already crossing the front garden, and when he reached the front door, he turned around to wave once more.

Aziraphale wave in return and then, when the door had closed, he started walking with a little bit more resolution that when the night had started (and it had nothing to do with the fact that Aziraphale would be in the company of one Anthony Crowley).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a bit sleep deprived since during the week the words for this fic eluded me and, suddenly, yesterday I couldn't stop writing and now I look like a crazy woman... 
> 
> Anyhow, I think that trying to post on a certain day might be the problem, since it's like having a deadline (and I have enough deadlines with my work as it is), so I just settle with posting one chapter per week and let the story follow its course.
> 
> I already know where I want to end this story, so I'm just working with all my strength to get there. 
> 
> As usual, this work needs revision and there might be grammatical and orthography errors. 
> 
> Thank you for keep reading this story and all your kudos, you're amazing!


	6. Acquaintances after Dusk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are afoot and Tony 's new acquaintance might be something more than what he appears. New forces are coming into play, even if Tony can't see them yet, but much sooner that he might suspect, everything in his life will change. 
> 
> Aziraphale has conflicting emotions about his new human acquaintance, the boy with the red hair and bright eyes, and a simple decision make in the earlier hours of the night is about to prove more than he can handle.

Tony was taking the last pancake (lushly gold and spongy) out of the pan, grabbing the plate and his big coffee mug to go and sit at the little cottage table with Ana and Adam, whose appetite had come back with a vengeance when the boy had woken up this morning, going into his ninth pancake, topping it with cream and chocolate syrup. Tony knew It wasn’t healthy to let Adam consume so much sugar so early in the morning, but he and Ana had been so relieved to see the boy woke up with nothing more than a small headache and a lot of hunger, that they agreed to let him enjoy his breakfast.

Ana wasn’t quite sure what had happened to Adam last night, and when Tony came back after dropping Warlock with his parents ( _they seem nice_ , that’s all Tony’s mind seemed to conjure when Ana had asked him about them), he had settle down in the living room floor to spent the night and make sure Adam was okay.

Now, even with a sore back and barely any sleep, Tony was grateful the little brat was back at his old and happy self, so he reached into the plate and stole a bite from the sugary mess Adam was consuming (which prove to be a bad idea, since Tony almost had to gulped down his entire mug to wash the atrocious after taste of so much sugar).

“Come on, brat, finish your breakfast so I can take you home before your parents send a search party to pick you up.”

“Oh, come on! We didn’t finish the movie, let me stay until we do,” Adam was licking chocolate from his fingers and making his best impression of puppy eyes.

“Sorry, Adam, but your parents were very punctual of you going home before noon. Besides, watching a horror movie in daylight is not as fun as watching it during nighttime.” Ana smiled at Tony over the rim oh her own mug, knowing that the redheaded man wasn’t into enduring another session of horror.

“Yeah,” Tony said, throwing daggers at Ana with his eyes. “And even if I didn’t have committed to show around town to a friend, Warlock might be a bit angry that we didn’t wait on him to finish the movie.”

Before Ana had time to asked what friend Tony was spending time with today (a lot had happened yesterday, so he hadn’t had time to tell her), Adam let his fork slipped from his grip and reach to hold his head, squinting his eyes as if he was in pain. Tony and Ana were moving even before the fork hit the floor: Tony reached and pulled the chair Adam was sitting on back while Ana ran to the get some of her herbs and unguents in the high cabinet.

“Adam? Adam, what’s wrong?” Tony asked, worry once more settling in his stomach, while he reached for the boy’s hand and pulled it down to looked at his eyes; they were watery and squinted in pain.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” Adam gasped as Ana came back with something wrapped in a wet towel, but before he could reach him, Adam stood up from the chair. “I’m okay, it’s just a little headache.”

Both friend looked at each over Adam’s curls, questioning if maybe they should call an ambulance or drive the boy to a hospital… Tony had never seen Adam got this kind of sick, just a little flu that Mama Tracy treated with a hot cup of tea and Adam was back on his feet, but this was different, this was… scary.

“Please, don’t tell my parents, they’ll worry and probably keep me lock down at home.”

Tony sighed and stood from his crouching, rubbing the back of his head. _He’s been like this since our birthday party, I wonder if there’s something wrong?_

“We won’t tell, but if this keeps going you must tell us immediately, deal?” Tony liked to treat Adam as an adult and the kid appreciated it, so he hoped that Adam was mature enough to tell the truth. “Come on, I’ll take you home in the car so you don’t have to walk.”

“Do you think it’s okay?” Ana asked when Adam left for the living room to get his hoodie. “Maybe his parents ought to know.”

“I promise him we wouldn’t tell and I trust him to tell me if something is wrong or if it gets worse.”

Ana just looked worry, but simply nodded, knowing fully well that Tony loved Adam and would do anything to keep him safe, so she complied with her best friend.

“On the way back, maybe you should pick your mom up, so she doesn’t have to drive herself here,” Ana told Tony as he was walking, keys in hand, towards the exit.

______________________________________

Tony loved his car, it was one of his most valuable possessions, even when it was rickety old, consume more gas that it was strictly necessary and sometimes it would take until 2 or 3 times to start, but it had been the first thing he had bought with his own money and it was the thing that had marked his settling down at last when his mom decided Tony could attend collage instead of taking online classes… So yeah, maybe it was an old and beat Bentley, but it was HIS Bentley and it had never left him hanging.

Tony was driving at a respectable speed, knowing that Tadfield was to small and, sometimes, to crowed to come barreling over the 20 miles per hour, so he was just enjoying the drive, letting the breeze in through the windows and humming along with the radio, singing in a small voice.

Adam was resting his head in his seat, with his eyes closed and face tilted up to catch the rays of the Sun that came through the branches of the trees, completely at ease.

“Adam,” Tony didn’t want to break the spell of quietness, but he had to ask. “Is everything okay? Are you feeling… well? It’s just that yesterday and then this morning…”

“I’m really okay, Tony, promise. It’s just that my head hurts a little, but I’m quite sure is because I’ve been eating a lot of sugar or something.”

“Just promise me you’ll tell me if something goes wrong, okay?”

Adam nodded and smiled, and Tony relaxed a bit, not wanting to press the issue any longer, deciding on trusting his little friend.

“So, who are you seeing today? Can I come?” Adam asked.

“I don’t think it’s gonna be something interesting, brat. I promise to show around town a guy I met yesterday when I was coming back home, he’s some kind of collector or scholar or some-other-important-shit. My guess is he’s making some kind of research, and besides, you need to spend some time with your parents and you know I’m right.”

Adam pouted a little, and Tony remembered he was still a kid who still tended to get annoyed when he didn’t get what he wanted, but Adam was also very mature and didn’t want Tony to treat him like a child, so he just nodded. “Can I come by the shop on Monday, then?”

“Of course, on the condition your parents agree and if you had homework you bring your books with you,” Tony might have had a soft spot for children, but he also knew the importance of learning. Adam beamed with happiness and promise to be there at 6 pm.

__________________________________

“I’ll change the last two paragraphs on the lore of witches in England and add something about how herbalists and women of science were thought of witches back then, just to add a little punch to chapter.”

Tony was at the stove again, heating water for some tea, while his mum and Ana were sitting at the table, working on the final chapter on witches for Ana’s thesis presentation; they’ve been at it since Tony came back with mama Tracy, now it was almost 7 p.m. and diner had gone cold in both women’s plates, but tea had been a constant since 3 p.m. (but Tony had been very careful in not adding much sugar so his mum wouldn’t go over excited with the subject).

Tony didn’t mind letting his mum spent time with Ana when she came visiting, since Tony never have been into all the esotericism and mysticism of “magic” and the supernatural, which still baffled Ana till this day, considering Tony had spent must of his childhood and adulthood surrounded by it, with charms, spells, divinations and concoctions that his mum used to give to him.

And yes, he still humored his mum and, by proxy, Ana with everything they tried on him, but didn’t believe in it; the only thing that had rubbed on him from all those years moving from place to place with his mum, were his love for plants and his many uses (from harmful to beneficial).

Tony set the hot tea pot down and serve his mum and his best friend a warm cup of tea, deciding to ruffled a bit in all the ledgers and shipments for next week while he wait (no eager at all) for the message that his date had arrived. _Not a date, a dude that I’m doing a favor for._

Still, Tony checked, for almost the hundredth time, his cellphone; there weren’t any messages from Aziraphale (which, now that he thought about it, Tony still didn’t know the strangers phone number), but he noticed a small text from Nico.

_Bonsoir, beau! Ça va bien? I just wanted to know (not pressure at all) if you have made up your mind about joining me for the opening._

Tony sighed and pocketed the phone without answering, since he still didn’t know what to do about that trip or if it was best for him to stay put and talk to Nico when he came back.

“I was wondering if you had finally received the text you’ve been waiting all afternoon, but for that sigh, I guess Nico is calling, right?” Ana had unglued her eyes from her computer and no was watching intently at Tony.

Tony sent his friend a death glare, but it was too late, mama Tracy was already putting away her reading glasses and her smile was almost blinding.

“Oh, sweety, do you already have a boyfriend and you didn’t tell me? That Nicolaus boy is such a charmer; no wonder you’ve been so nervous all afternoon…”

“Mama, is not like that, Nico and I are just friends…”

“Friends that sleep with each other, but that’s another subject.”

Tony almost spit his tea all over the table, knowing full well that he couldn’t keep a secret from his mum… If he was in the business of believing in the supernatural, which he wasn’t, he might have think that his mum really had have a vision or something, _She just probably saw a love bite on my neck_.

“Anyhow,” Tony rasped a little, while Ana was still trying to clean her computer from the tea she spitted. “Nico and I are just friends, mum, promise to you on that. I’m waiting for a message from an acquaintance I made yesterday, I promise to be sort of a guide for him and his nephew.”

Ana arched an eyebrow, curious about why her best friend hadn’t told her about this sooner, but Tony decided to ignored it for the moment (he knew Ana would drill him with questions later).

“An acquaintance?” Mama Tracy asked, losing her bright demeanor. “Darling, who is this person? Do you know him from before?”

Tony knew this was coming, that’s why he had tried (very unsuccessfully) to avoid any talk about Aziraphale and the very weird way they had met. Mama Tracy was a force of nature, wild and bright and full of energy, Tony had inherited a lot from her in that department, but she could also be very over protective and fearful when it came to Tony meeting new people.

Mama Tracy had moved a lot around with Tony, teaching him at home and, when she felt herself lacking to keep teaching him, enrolled him in online classes; she had only said yes to college after Tony agreed to keep living with her and to always drink a concoction she made for him every single day, but she still didn’t trust easily in strangers.

“He’s just a researcher I met yesterday when I was coming home from dropping one of Adam’s friends at his house; we kind of bumped into each other and he politely asked if I minded to give him a tour, and considering this is Tadfield, the tour will provably last about and hour, so it’s nothing to worry about.”

Mama Tracy was completely silent, which was a bad sign, because it meant she was about to go on a rampage of a speech, to try to dissuaded Tony from meeting Aziraphale and making him promise to not leave the house without salt in his shoes for a week, and Tony would have probably agreed because he didn’t like when his mum worry, but this time, he wanted to go _. I want to see him again_ , Tony admitted.

“Mum, listen, I know what you think about strangers, but this is Tadfield, everyone knows me and I’ll be just showing around some guy that looks like he could be a teacher in my old college… I promise to just show him around and come back home immediately.” Tony sounded as a teenager trying to convince his strict mother to say yes to something he wanted really badly.

Mama Tracy was silent for a moment, and then reached to pet Tony’s rebel red hair, resting her hand on his cheek. Tony held his breath, deciding that if his mum said no, he wouldn’t push the subject.

“Drink the tea before you go, darling,” Mama Tracy said with a sad smile and then stood up to start preparing the concoction Tony knew very well from his childhood and early adulthood, which, according to his mum, was a protection against people who wish to harm him.

Ana looked at Mama Tracy’s back, a little wrinkle forming in between her brow, and Tony knew that she was “sensing” something, but when she turned around she just whispered,

“I’ll stay with her and we’ll talk about this later.”

Tony nodded with a grateful smile, but a huge weight had settle in the pit of his stomach, it felt as if his mum was allowing him to go to this rendezvous because it was inevitable and, in a way, Tony felt like something had started to shift beneath his feet.

____________________________________

Aziraphale had insisted on going first to Tadfield, since he could wake up a bit earlier and it was proper manners to be on time for a meeting (not a date, this is purely professional), so he left Newt with the plan they had arrange last night: they will meet back at the small Inn the Camarilla had found for them in a village called Kingham, a few miles away from Tadfield and unsuspicious enough so the locals wouldn’t link them with the disappearance of a child.

By now, Aziraphale was convinced that the Descendant was a young boy, realizing later on his walk back to town that the cottage where Anthony lived was also the home of a woman and a child, both scents strong in the air… Which probably meant that Anthony was marry and this boy of his was probably what Aziraphale and the rest of his kin were looking for; but still, it was strange and bit troublesome, Aziraphale could have sworn he got some kind of… connection with the red hair man.

But that couldn’t be, since Aziraphale was about to destroy the young man’s life and that of his wife too, by taking their child away… Many questions plagued Aziraphale as he made his way towards Tadfield: If this boy was the Descendant, it also meant that Anthony was part of the bloodline of the First Vampire? What if it was the wife? How was different taking an adult or a child for cleansing the First Blood?

Aziraphale couldn’t be certain of anything, since the ring had stop pulling and pulsing since yesterday, maybe because the magic of the tracker had finally found what it was looking for.

He texted he was on his way to Anthony, hoping to make sense of all this problem once he got there, planning on how to be invited to his house and what to do about the probably abduction of a child… Aziraphale didn’t want to harm an innocent person, he had promised himself he wouldn’t do it again.

The blond vampire parked the spared car exactly where they had parked the night before with Newt _. If we really are going to kidnap a child, it’s better if we don’t leave any traces behind_ , Newt had told him before they went to sleep.

Aziraphale walked into town, breathing in to calm his nerves, plucking the infernal device from his coat and checking if the “text” had been sent (he really hate the pesky little thing), when he heard his name being called.

“Oi! Aziraphale, over here!”

The blond looked up and froze, drinking the image in front of him: Anthony, dressed all in black just as the day before, leaning against an old and batter black Bentley, with the lights of the lamp post shining down on him, making his hair looked like it was on fire and turning his eyes into the most beautiful shade of gold, almost looking bright yellow.

Tony pushed up from his car and walked straight to Aziraphale, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, with his left hand (was that a bandage under the sleeve of his shirt?) ruffling his already wild hair.

“You must be the most punctual person I know, you arrive here at exactly 8 p.m., no a second to spare or waste, so color me impressed,” Anthony’s voice carried some sort of teasing tone, just like the night before when he had said goodbye to Aziraphale.

Aziraphale stood there, surrounded by Anthony’s presence and easy smile, a little tinge of cologne in the air and beneath it, the lingering scent of blood… But this was weird, Aziraphale hadn’t notice yesterday, but now he couldn’t deny it: Anthony smelled good, more than good, but if Aziraphale didn’t concentrate, he wouldn’t be able to find Anthony’s scent again.

“Hey, Zira, you still with me, buddy? Long day at work?” Anthony was still standing there, smile gone and a worried expression in his face. “Where’s your nephew? Is everything okay?”

“Did… did you just called me “Zira”? Aziraphale was baffled and he let out the first thought that came into his mind.

“Well, yeah… Don’t get me wrong, your name is cool and all, but a bit long to be saying it all the time,” Anthony’s cheeks had turned a beautiful shade of pink. “Sorry if I overstepped a boundary”

“No, of course not, dear boy,” Aziraphale replayed. “Sorry, it just took me by surprise. And as for my nephew, I must admit he’s a bit of a night owl, so he’ll be joining us in a while.”

Anthony nodded and new if small smile formed in his lips, and Aziraphale’s still heart almost hurt, as if the useless organ wanted to beat once again. _Stop it, he’s a married man._

“So, shall we?” Anthony asked, heading back towards the parked Bentley.

“Yes, we shall.”

____________________________________

They drove in comfortable silence must of the hour and half it took Tony to go from one point of Tadfield to the other, with Aziraphale asking here and there questions about houses, business and the small convent turned paintball court (this was an interesting story about a fire that Tony didn’t know much about it, but he tried to explain as best as he could to his companion).

Now, they were going back to central Tadfield, driving through the woods that surrounded the town, since Tony had decided to took the long way back, wanting (for some inexplicable reason) to spent a little more time with Aziraphale.

The night had completely descended upon them and a little part of his brain still screamed at him that he was in the company of danger, which Tony quickly shot down, still unsure how someone who looked like Aziraphale could be dangerous at all.

He had replaced his usual playlist of rock for something more soothing, with slow and haunting beautiful songs that blended with the silent mood of the car; Tony wanted to ask Zira about him, but he didn’t want to break the calmness, so he started humming the words of the song, singing in a low voice.

When the song was reaching the second verse, Tony was openly singing along, something extremely odd considering he didn’t sing in front of people (Ana and his mum being exceptions), even thought he knew he was an okay singer, he still felt self-conscious.

“You have a beautiful voice, Anthony, even thought the song is a bit sad, don’t you think?” It was the first Zira had said since they started going back.

Tony reign himself and felt how a light blush crept along his cheeks. “Thanks, man. I don’t usually sing in front of people, but for a very strange reason I feel okay singing in front of you… I must look like a desperate emo kid trying to impress you, right?”

“Not at all, my dear boy,” Zira was looking at him. “When someone has a beautiful talent, it must be showcase for everyone… At least, that’s what some of my acquaintance think in regards of the arts.”

“Oh, that’s… cool,” Tony didn’t really had subtlety for compliments, so he decided to take a different route with the conversation. “Hey, not to be rude or anything, but you always sound like a teacher giving a lecture, Zira… If I may ask, where are you from?”

Aziraphale kept silent for a moment and Tony was about to go back to singing at the top of his lungs to drown the uncomfortable silence, when the blond man spoke again.

“I was born and raised in London, dear. But I left when I was young for some… studies, you might say, and been relocated to a number of countries around the world for my profession; lately, I’ve been living in France, keeping the records and books from my, well, employers in order.”

“Relocated? I guess I understand you in that department, I moved a lot, too. When I was a child, my mum used to move around for work and what-not, but I’ve never been out of the UK,” Tony decided to share something personal, too. “But visiting a lot of countries must be amazing, right? I know someone who travels as much as you, but I don’t think your lines of work would be similar.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Zira said and didn’t elaborate, which meant Tony had hit a wall with Zira’s work.

“What about your nephew? Has he arrived? I don’t like to think he’s waiting for us all alone,” Tony tried a new route of conversation.”

“Do not worry about Newton, Anthony, he’s old enough to be good on his own and probably is walking around the streets. As I told you before, he’s kind of a night owl.”

“I guess it must run in the family, right? Seeing as you opted for a tour in the night rather than in broad daylight, when it had been a little easier to see everything.”

“I have an incredible sight, my dear boy, so do not worry about that either,” Aziraphale smiled a tight lip smile, just as if was laughing at some internal joke.

Tony realized Zira hadn’t answer any of his questions, but still, he pushed a little more about this thread about family, in hopes of learning something new.

“You looked pretty young for having a grown-up nephew, so I guessed you are the baby of the family?”

“I’m older than you think, but in regards of my… family, yes, you might say I’m one of the youngest,” Aziraphale, again, didn’t elaborate and before Tony could asked anything else, the blond man continued. “But what about you, dear boy? If you forgive my boldness, that cottage where you lived is a bit big for one person, do you live with your family? A wife and kids maybe?”

Tony hauled a laugh so loud that he saw how Zira flinched in surprise from his outburst, so the red head man just laughed again, wiping a little tear from his eye before answering.

“That’s… that’s a good one, can’t wait to tell Ana about it,” Tony breathed through his nose and sniffled a laugh again, making a snort sound from his nose.

“I seem to be amiss of the joke, Anthony,” Zira looked a little puzzled and a little upset. _He looks so good with that frown between his brows,_ Tony thought.

“Sorry, sorry… I live with my best friend and business partner in that cottage; my mum also lives in this town, but her house is in lower Tadfield; as for the wife part, I guess you could say that my tastes lay… somewhere else.”

“Oh?” Zira looked confused for a second when, suddenly, it was like a curtain had draw back and the blond man finally got the joke. “Oh! I see, I’m sorry, dear, since you’re in the peak of your age I assumed…”

“Hey, man, it’s okay, don’t fret about it,” many people sometimes assumed Tony was straighter as they come, so he got it. “And as for the kid part, I guess you could say I have one under my wing, one little brat that lives in this town as well.”

Zira’s whole demeanor change in an instant, Tony saw how his expression went from placid to almost looking… predatory. The same weight he had felt back at his house return and, for the second time tonight, he wanted to bolt in any direction that could take him away from the man sitting next to him. And then, in the next second or so, Zira’s face was back at his normal state, polite, reserved, content, and Tony thought if what he had seen was a trick of light.

“It sounds like you have an amazing life in this place, dear. I’m almost jealous of all the traveling I do,” Zira said with a soft voice. They had finally reached central Tadfield and Tony had turned off the car. “Say, dear boy, could you introduce me to your friends?”

There was something in that voice, something that made Tony turned around and saw that Aziraphale was almost leaning on top of him from his sit, the blond man’s eyes glowing in the dark, almost as if light it from within.

A thought form in the back of Tony’s mind: Ana and Adam would totally love to meet Aziraphale, he was polite and kind, and he would probably could help Ana with her assignment, too.

“Sure, Zira,” Tony said almost as in a dream. “I will love for them to meet you, too.”

____________________________________

Adam heard a tap in his window, but he dismissed it for a bird or a branch blown by the night air; he was laying in his bed, trying to read the last chapter in his comic book, when the tap came again.

The boy got up from his bed, since he slept on a second floor and no one could climb that high (Adam had tried). When opened the curtain, he almost fell backwards from the impression: Warlock was there, floating mid air, his dark eyes shining and he was moving his mouth as if trying to say something.

Adam was scared, really, really scared, but when Warlock signal the latch on his window, it was as if a hand moved Adam towards it and he opened it for the flying boy outside.

“Hey, Adam,” Warlock said, but the words sounded wrong, almost as is his mouth was a bit to full of teeth. “May I come in? I need to talk to you about something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last "transition" chapter in the story, so I took me a bit more than usual to write it down so it will fit everything that's going to happen from here on.
> 
> Thank you all for keep reading, for you kudos and for the first comment in this story, it really helps me to keep going. 
> 
> As usual, this work needs revision and might contain grammar and spelling mistakes.


	7. Let the right one in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One last normal night that brings more questions than answers. One last normal night before Aziraphale meets those who plot to destroy the entire vampire race. One last normal night before Tony learns that some people are not who they seemed to be. One last night before the race against time picks up speed and turns even more dangerous and with dire consequences.

“You sure we shouldn’t wait for your nephew?” Tony asked once again, knowing that it was kind of rude leaving Zira’s nephew to find the cottage for himself, but the redhead man was kind of happy to spent a few more quiet moments in the company of Zira, knowing that his mom and Ana would probably be all over him when they reached the front door.

“Do not worry, Anthony,” Zira told him, smiling sideways to him. “Newton is very capable of finding his way around places, I’ll just text him the location of your house when we arrive.”

Tony just nodded and kept driving. Honestly, this abrupt invitation for Zira to come home and have a cup of tea with him seemed odd, since Tony tried to avoid introducing new people to his mom until he was certain Mama Tracy wouldn’t drill the poor soul to dust with her questions, but Tony wanted (almost to an obsessive degree) for Zira to meet Ana and Adam, his beloved friends.

Adam would probably be home and tucked in bed at this time, and although Tony wanted to drive to the boy’s home and drag him out so he could meet Zira, another part of his brain rebelled against the thought, knowing full well he was meeting Adam tomorrow and Zira could meet him then (also, he didn’t want to deal with a probably very upset Mr. Young if Tony came and perturbed his night peace at such hour).

When Tony told this to Zira, the blond man had been quiet and Tony could had sworn he would insist in going to Adam’s (Tony was a bit unfazed and a bit weary at the look Zira had at that moment), but then he just had nodded and said that getting to know Adam tomorrow would also give him the perfect excuse to visited Tony’s shop.

The lights of the cottage were still on, which didn’t surprise Tony, knowing that Ana and his mom would probably still be at the kitchen table, discussing and adding more information to Ana’s research. Tony parked in the curb and exited hurriedly from the car, reaching the other side before Zira could even cracked open the door, so Tony could open it for him.

“And people say chivalry is dead,” Zira said as he stepped down from the car, smiling his thigh lip but charming smile to Tony, whose mind went blank and he was left fumbling for a smart retort.

“Ye… yeah, well, you know what they say, right?”

“I seem to not know, my dear, what do they say?”

Tony was about to fake a stroke or something to save him from the embarrassment when, thankfully, the front door opened and Ana wave her hand at him, “Hey, loser, you coming in or what?”

“Comin’, nerd,” Tony could have kissed her for her timely appearance. He went straight for the little door at the wooden fence and gestured for Zira to follow, which the blond did dutifully, but kept a few paces behind Tony.

Reaching the front door, which Ana had left opened for them, Tony smelled one of his friend’s original tea recipes in the air, mixing with the warm smell of recently made toast; his mouth water and his stomach let out what could only be recognized as a whale matting call. _Just let me die_ , Tony thought as he turned around to see if Zira had heard the sound of his treacherous organ.

Zira was standing in the door mat, still outside the cottage, his blond hair batted in the warm light of the porch, which turned it into a halo of gold. _He looks like an angel standing there,_ Tony thought.

“Hey, Zira,” Tony’s mouth went dry and he was craving for a cup of tea in his hand right at that second. “Don’t just stand there, the tea would get cold, come on in.”

“Thank you,” Zira smiled once again and his blue eyes twinkled as if he was remembering an old joke, which made him look like a mischievous cherub or something like that. _Can angels be mischievous?_ Tony thought as he closed the door behind his guest.

____________________________________

Anthony’s home was everything Aziraphale had imagine: a small but clean place, full of memories and warm, every single space optimized to its full potential and, the most important thing, it was full of love, Aziraphale could appreciated it in the knitted throw pillows, in the many photographs around the living room, in the mismatched but fitting curtains.

Anthony was going further into the cottage, towards a small kitchen where a woman with a mess of brown curls was sitting at the table, apparently trying to drown a piece of toast in blueberry jam. Anthony dropped a quick kiss into the curls of the woman, and she in return smeared a bit of jam into Anthony’s cheek, but in a teasing and tender way, and Aziraphale felt he was intruding into something very private.

This must be Anathema, Anthony’s best friend, roommate and work partner, someone extremely important in the redheaded man’s life for his enthralled mind to pushed her into the front when Aziraphale had suggested that it would be nice to met Anthony’s friends.

“Where’s mom?” Anthony was fumbling around the kitchen cabinets, probably looking for mugs and plates for him and Aziraphale.

“She’s in the back, went for a bit more lavender for the tea, she won’t be long,” Anathema had her back to Aziraphale, but as the blond vampire step a bit further into the kitchen, he could see how the woman’s shoulders tense and she whirled around so fast she almost fell from the chair she was sitting on.

Aziraphale froze in place when the brown eyes of Anathema found his, they were full of fear but also fierceness, her features set into something resembling a threat and recognition, which required every single ounce of willpower from Aziraphale to not hiss and pounced at her. _Of course, from all the places and moments, now I run into a witch_ , Aziraphale thought as his mind started formulating a plan.

Witches weren’t like they were in fiction, they didn’t fly in brooms or steal children for supper; witches were men and women that had a deep connection to the natural world, so that same natural world let them be aware of things normal humans weren’t: like changes in the weather, what were the best herbs to cure a disease or to guard evil away, purify the mind and emotions and, in some very weird cases, see glimpses of the future. But one thing every witch had in common was the ability of sensing the unnatural beings, and what was more unnatural that a vampire?

Anathema was a very young witch, Aziraphale could tell that much, but it was an unnecessary risk to be in her company, since this could compromise the mission of finding and snatching Adam away; Newton was already outside of the cottage, having been following Anthony and Aziraphale for half the night, but the young vampire had texted Aziraphale that the best course of action in case something went wrong was for him to kept a distance and intervene when it was necessary, if nothing went sideways, he could just “arrived” to the cottage and picked Aziraphale up.

Aziraphale was about to made an excuse for leaving before tea, when the backdoor opened and a very small, very perky woman step inside; her reddish orange curls bounce at every step, her arms were full of purple twigs (lavender, Anathema had said, which was not a good sign). The woman stopped in her tracks towards Anthony and her blue-green eyes scanned Aziraphale once, to then opened up in an almost funny way, which had her dropping all the lavender and running the last steps to throw herself in front of Anthony (which would have been even funnier if it wasn’t for the situation, seeing that her head barely reached Anthony’s shoulders).

_Oh, jolly good, there’s not one witch, but two._

________________________________________

Tony, who was completely unaware of what was happening in his kitchen at the moment, had finally turned around from the cabinets to find his mother in front of him, his best friend holding the jam knife as a possible weapon and Aziraphale frozen in the entrance to the kitchen, looking sickly pale but with an almost feral look in his face.

The tension in the room was palpable and almost oppressing, which felt alien in the little space, considering he was in the company of the two most important women in his life and a kind man that took his breath away when Tony looked at him, and this wasn’t what he had expected when the night began.

“Mom, Ana,” Tony cleared his throat once and put down the mugs and plates to place a hand on his mother’s shoulder. “This is Aziraphale, the man I showed around town tonight. Zira, these are my mom, Tracy, and my best friend, Anathema.”

Calling their names seemed to only augmented the tension in the room, with Mama Tracy gripping Tony’s hand in her shoulder with a force that could have shattered bone if she wanted to, Ana going into what only could be assume was a battle stance (a weird one, considering she was still sitting down).

Zira was even paler, but he cleared his throat too and said with the calmness voice, “Good evening, madame, young lady, thank you for having me. Anthony, we’ll have to reschedule that tea for another time, I think it is best if I go back now.”

Tony felt as if the floor had given up from under him, he didn’t want Zira to go just yet, he wanted to talked a little more with him. He was about to said that he would drove him back to town when a voice cut through the tension and it wasn’t the voice Tony was expecting to hear.

“Stay, if you please,” Mama Tracy was still in front of Tony, but her voice carried around the room. “It’s not every day we get to know… important people just as you, Mister…”

“Frye, madame, Aziraphale Frye, at your service.”

“Mr. Frye,” Mama Tracy nodded once. “Would you like a cup of tea before you go?”

Tony saw how Zira seemed to process this, keeping his stare trained of Mama Tracy, and then he just barely looked at Tony’s way, with that little spark in those blue eyes Tony had saw more than once tonight.

“Yes, a cup of tea sounds delightful.”

“Tony, dear, could you prepare a new batch of tea, please? Used a bit of chamomile and sage; Ana, sweet girl, could you please help Tony so he doesn’t used much of anything,” Mama Tracy was already walking towards Zira and the blond man was waiting patiently for her. “We’ll take the tea in the front porch, Mr. Frye.”

Zira nodded and let Mama Tracy take the lead to the front door, but before he followed her, Zira looked back at Tony and smiled him one last time.

______________________________________

The night was fresh and it smelled like grass, rain and the clear rays of moonlight; Aziraphale’s eyes went to scan the surrounding area, looking for Newt so he could signal him to stay hidden.

“I think is best if you asked your companion to come here, Mr. Frye, it’s only polite enough to introduce yourself and to not eavesdrop.”

Aziraphale shouldn’t have been surprise that this woman was a powerful enough witch to realized he hadn’t come alone and, in the spirit of not stepping into her bad side, he expanded his senses: the night became clearer, the sounds became sharp (Aziraphale could hear Anthony and Anathema discussing something inside the cottage, but decided against hearing that conversation, to grant him so privacy) and he could smell every single drop of scent that emanated fro the earth and the humans around him.

Newt was hidden in one of the tallest trees, in a crouch and waiting, so Aziraphale just talked like if he was beside him, “Newton, dear boy, come down here, I fear we have been discovered.”

In a flash, Newt was in the entrance of the front garden gate of the cottage, his eyes reflecting the light from the porch, lips peeling back to reveal lethal fangs and with a growl growing strong in the back of his throat; it was a challenge, the Brujah were warriors by nature and this boy was shedding his human mask to become the predator he kept within.

“That won’t be necessary, young man, I represent no threat to you or your companion,” Tracy was completely at ease, Aziraphale could hear her heart, and it was beating at a steady rhythm. “If you promise to behave, I’ll invite you in.”

“Newton, it is completely fine, please reign yourself and put your fangs away.”

Tracy waited for the young vampire to subdued the Beast, and when Newt’s eyes were once again more human than predator and his stance was of caution instead of attack, the petite woman said, “Please, come in.”

Seeing that keeping up de the Masquerade was completely unnecessary at this point, Newt didn’t bother to walk all the way to the porch, he simply was there in the blink of an eye, standing right behind Aziraphale and assessing the strange human that was in front of them.

“I must say, I’ve never thought I see the day when a Ventrue would trust enough to turn his back to a Brujah,” Tracy said as she sat down in a small wood table. “The things you get to see when you’re no expecting anything are the ones that surprise you the most.”

Again, Aziraphale shouldn’t have been shocked that this woman not only knew they were not human, but that they belong to very different clans and which clans they belong to. Newt was having a harder time trying to cover up his surprise, so Aziraphale took the chance to steer Tracy’s attention to him once more.

“You seemed awfully aware of us and who we are, madame, but we still don’t know who you are and how someone as powerful as you get to be in this little corner of the world.”

Tracy just smiled a little and righted her long skirt, so she could seat in a more proper way. “You must excuse my manners back there, Mr. Frye, I wasn’t expecting to find a Kindred in the kitchen of my son’s home; you could call it “motherly instinct”, the need of protecting one’s child.”

“My name is Tracy Crowley, Mr. Frye, and by now you must also be aware that I’m not a regular human. As for the reason I’m in this “little corner of the world”, as you so beautifully put it, is purely for health reasons.”

Aziraphale didn’t buy that, but he wouldn’t press the matter, so he just curtly nodded and, follow by Newt, step to the other side of the little table, standing a bit more in the shadows and far from the exposure to the main road.

“I’ve already introduce myself, madame, but on the case of being polite and formal, I’ll do it again: my name is Aziraphale Frye, the archivist and librarian of the Ventrue clan; this is my companion, Newton Pulsifer, member of the Brujah clan.”

For a moment, no one said anything; Aziraphale could hear Anthony’s voice coming from the inside of the cottage, his deep tone had a cadence that soothe his nerves, even when the blond vampire was trying with all his might to not try to discern the words. Tracy was looking on to the night, her serene face cleared of any fear at being in the company of two very dangerous creatures.

“I know why you’re here,” Tracy said in a low voice. “The Corruption is spreading faster than the Camarilla had predicted and you two must have been sent here to look for the only way to repair the wrong that hate has brought. You’re here for the Descendant, aren’t you?”

This time, it was impossible for Aziraphale to hide his surprise, he was quite sure it was plastered all over his face; Newt had gone completely still behind him, probably wondering if this was a time to fight or flight, still unsure about the direction this conversation was taking.

“I’ve known for months that sooner or later someone from the Camarilla would probably show up, but I was hoping the safeguards around the town would keep danger away,” Tracy was still looking into the night, and she seemed even smaller and more tired than before. “When I first heard the rumors about the Corruption, I couldn’t believe they actually did it, that they found the First Blood and went through with that terrible decision.”

“Hold up,” Newt had stepped around Aziraphale, and the blond vampire recognized that Newt was making a big effort to keep the Beast in control (young vampire were more sensitive than the old ones). “You said you’ve known for months about this… Who are you, lady? What it’s your role in all of this?”

Aziraphale was trying to wrap his mind around this turn of events: here was Tracy, a powerful witch that probably had put up the safeguards that interfere with the tracking spell from his ring, which meant she was protecting the Descendant, but still was willing to talk to them, two vampires that had come to take him away.

“You know who started this, who started the Corruption, don’t you?” Aziraphale asked.

“Hatred and betrayal can be even more dangerous than the sharpest knife,” Tracy said. “Years ago, a Kindred of yours copy and partially destroy a valuable text from the Camarilla archive; inside this text, there was a legend about the first vampire and the relic he left behind for his human descendants to fend of the vampires if they ever need it, but it also was a powerful relic that could grant powers beyond knowledge to the vampires.”

“The Corruption is the side effect of activating the First Blood into a weapon of mass destruction for the vampires, it requires a great sacrifice: taint the relic with a newly corrupted and once innocent blood,” Tracy seemed to be reciting this from a very old memory. “The only way of cleansing the taint is with a few drops of the innocent blood of the direct descendants of the first vampire; but, if the blood of this Descendant is also corrupted and stolen from its innocence, then there won’t be stopping that destruction of the vampire race.”

The three of them remained silent: Tracy was still staring into the night, Newt was pacing back and fort, maybe trying to come up with a plan of action, while Aziraphale knew that now, more than ever, it was imperative that their mission succeed.

“I know that you’re trying to save your people, but dragging such an innocent boy into this mess is inhuman, that’s why I decided to protect him.” Tracy was shaking a little, and her eyes were glazy with unshed tears.

Aziraphale knelt in front of Tracy, and really looked at this woman and tried to decipher how long had she been doing this, protecting a prophesized child from someone she knew would try to harm him. Aziraphale recalled Anthony telling him that he used to moved around a lot with his mom, and now it made sense: this powerful witch had been looking for the Descendant, knowing that one day he might need protecting, from the foes of the Camarilla or the Camarilla itself.

“You say it is inhuman but, sadly, we aren’t human,” Aziraphale said, trying and falling to not sound threatening, so he tried again. “I know you care for this boy, but if what you say it’s truth, then he’s no longer safe here, since the foes that did this, whoever the might be, are looking for Adam too, and they might try to hurt him. I promise you, if we take him, the entire Camarilla would see that he’s never harm and he would have a happy and long life, we’ll keep him safe and hidden, and no harm would come to him.”

“Well, no harm beyond maybe a little nip to draw the blood we need to purify the First Blood,” Newt said in what, Aziraphale thought, was a very lousy way of trying to be helpful and sensitive.

“You’re not helping, Newton.”

Tracy was looking from one vampire to the other, her face was an open question that beg for answers, but Aziraphale didn’t know what she wanted to hear.

“Please, madame, if you have known about this for a long time, then maybe you can also help us find the First Blood and put at end to this… Please, I beg you, in the name of my kindred and follow clans, please help us.”

Tracy was silent, looking very hard into Aziraphale’s eyes, her thin lips trying to form words that even for his sharp vampire hearing were hard to understand.

“The Descendant… Adam Young…”

Before she could say anything else, the front door opened and Anthony step outside carrying a silver tray full with mismatch mugs and a teapot, with a bunch of paper napkins firmly tuck between his lips; his cheeks were rosy from standing near the warmth of the stove for so long (and Aziraphale, who had moved incredibly fast from his crouched position, find it so endearing, he almost wanted to touch them to see If they were really warm).

Anthony looked at the now three people in his front porch, seemed to counted the mugs and sighed, putting the tray down in the little wood table, followed by the napkins (the top one still had the form from his mouth, not that Aziraphale noticed it or anything).

“Hey, you must be Newton, Zira’s nephew, right?” Anthony extended his hand to a very dumbfounded Newt, who shaked lightly and quick. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you arrived, but I can bring another mug for you too.”

“Actually, sweetie pie, Mr. Frye was just telling me that they were going back, since it’s a bit late and tomorrow is a work day,” Tracy was back at her calm and cheery self, looking at her son with full adoration and complete sincerity. “But why don’t you invite the two of them to Eden tomorrow, so we can take that tea and have a longer talk?”

At that last bit, Tracy looked directly to Aziraphale and he understood the message: “We’ll talk tomorrow, I’ll tell you everything.” She was going to help them, she really was going too, but only if they left right now. Anthony seemed a bit lost and (Aziraphale could only hope) a bit sad that they were leaving.

“I can take you back to Central Tadfield, so you don’t have to walk…”

“Oh, do not worry, Anthony, the night is really nice and a good walk will be delightful for Newton’s health,” Newt seemed even more dumbfounded by this statement. “But we’ll see each other tomorrow, since you’ve already invited me to visit your shop.”

Anthony seemed to have something else to say, but his mom took his hand in hers, and he just nodded. “Okay, yeah, we’ll see you tomorrow. Adam will also be there, so you can finally meet him.”

“I’ll walk you to the road, gentleman,” Tracy stood up and started walking towards the fence that surrounded the cottage. Newt followed her after whishing Anthony a good night (and after a quick nod from Aziraphale).

“So, I’ll se you tomorrow,” Anthony said.

“Yes, my dear boy, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Aziraphale wanted, once again, to touched Anthony’s still rosy cheek, but he settled for a curt nodded and tight lip smile (how he wanted to openly smiled for Anthony).

“Don’t go bumping strangers in the night,” Anthony called after him.

Aziraphale raised his hand in farewell and turned with a big smile, reaching the front gate, where Tracy and Newt were waiting for him.

“Tomorrow, I’ll explain everything you want to know,” Tracy was telling Newt. “But, just for tonight, let him have one last normal night.”

“We’ll do,” Aziraphale said. “But, if I may ask, madame, why did you decided to help us?”

“I didn’t,” Tracy said as she closed the doo on the fence. “But you’re right, Mr. Frye, things are now in motion and the only thing I care about is keeping him safe.”

Without so much as a nod, Tracy turned around and marched in quick steps towards Anthony, who was still waiting for his mom by the front door; when she reached him, he picked the tray from the table and let her going inside first, accepting a quick kiss (for which Anthony had to almost bend in half) in his cheek.

With a renewed confidence and high spirits, Aziraphale and Newt let themselves get carried by the night; and, if Aziraphale smiled all the way back towards the car and on his way to their little inn, he would have said it was because everything was according to plan and it had nothing to do with certain redhead man and that last smile he had given to Aziraphale before he closed the door to his little cottage.

____________________________________

In a dark room, two boys were still talking: one was laying at the top of his bed, the other was laying under the first boy’s bed to escape the rays of the sun when they come in the morning; they were talking in hushed tones, about magic, good, evil and what dwelled in the night.

After a while, the boy at the top of the bed fell asleep, with his dreams full of flying boys, sharp fangs and the determination of fulfilling a prophecy that could save everyone he cared about, even the boy under his bed.

Said boy laid completely motionless, listening to the calm breath of the sleeping boy; when the dawn was close and the dreamless sleep was finally claiming him, he heard a voice in his head, almost a whisper: _“You’ve been a very naughty boy, Warlock. But don’t worry, we’re on our way.”_

Warlock wanted to screamed, to wake Adam up and tell him about the danger that was coming, about how they needed to leave town before the dark took over the living world, but it was too late… With a last desperate attempt to try and knocked on Adam’s bed frame, the dreamless sleep of the vampires dragged him down until the world of the night could welcome him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I bought The Last of Us Part II and played it until I finished it; the thing is, the game drained me from everything (and not in a good way), so I was left with a very bad case of writer's block and didn't like anything that I came up with for this chapter until I took some time to purged myself from the (very) negative feelings I had after finishing TLOU. 
> 
> A few edgy movies and a lot of Breaking Benjamin serenading my nights later, I finally found the inspiration to kept writing again, and although the chapter didn't turn out exactly as I expected it, I'm liking how the story is picking up from here on, so I'm hoping to upload a new chapter before this week ends, fingers cross!
> 
> As usual, this work needs revision and might have spelling and grammatical errors. Thanks for keep reading and for all your kudos, you are awesome!


	8. Crossroads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "On the day that everything changed there were not ominous clouds covering the town or a brewing storm on his way, in fact, that Monday morning Tadfield had the best weather of the season: clear blue skies, warm rays of sun and a refreshing breeze that kept you cool and carried the smell of recently cut grass and warm wood."
> 
> A different kind of storm is about to hit with full force and Tony as well as Aziraphale need to be ready for what's coming, since every single choice will lead them farther a path from which they cannot return.

On the day that everything changed there were not ominous clouds covering the town or a brewing storm on his way, in fact, that Monday morning Tadfield had the best weather of the season: clear blue skies, warm rays of sun and a refreshing breeze that kept you cool and carried the smell of recently cut grass and warm wood.

Tony was already on the kitchen, and although he wasn’t a morning person per se, he felt on a really good mood and was singing a soft tune of one of his favorite songs when he heard the soft and quick steps of his mom entering the kitchen; he turned around and smiled over his shoulder, noticing that his mom’s hair was a wild mess, just like his was, but there were very dark circles under her eyes (this morning, they look more as forest green and the shades of blue were hiding).

“Mama, are you okay? Did you have trouble sleeping last night?” Tony walked to the table to place the plate of toast he just finished toasting, then walked around and crouched to looked his mom in the eyes. “I told you last night, you would have been more comfortable if you had had all my bed to yourself.”

Tony wasn’t a messy sleeper, but he was a cuddler and sometimes could be quite something to handle, with his almost 185 cm of height, he ended up almost smothering people in his sleep while he sought someone to hold (or so Ana and Nico had told him), and with his mom being barely above the 155 cm, he knew it was a bad idea to try and fit the two of them in his very small twin bed; but his mom had been adamant about her spending the night and, in what felt like ages, asking to sleep in the same bed as her son.

After the very weird turn of events last night with Zira and how his mom reacted, Tony couldn’t say no or insisted in him taking up the couch; Ana had offered her full bed to both of them, but Tony had rejected the offer, knowing full well Ana couldn’t sleep in small beds, so he and his mom ended up in his room after all the lights have gone out. Tony had tried to talked to his mom about what had happened with Zira, but she just had buried her head against his chest and said, “Everything will be okay, dear, do not worry about that right now.”

Now, seeing his mom worried brow and sad expression, his good mood went flying out the window and a feeling of dread settle in the pit of his stomach. “Mama, what is it?”

Before his mom could said anything, Ana entered the kitchen, still working on making a bun on the top of her head to try and control her rebellious hair, throwing a quick _Good morning_ on her way to the coffee maker… After all this years, Ana still needed her very dark cup of coffee if she wanted to function properly.

Tony heard how the mismatched kitchen chair creaked and his mom was already on her feet, a warm smile on her face and she reached down to place a quick kiss on Tony’s brow, “Everything is just find, love,” she said. “I’ll see you at Eden later, ok? I need to go and take a shower so I can go and find the culprit of selling the same essay on _Romeo & Juliet_ to a third of my students.”

“I’ll take you, mama, give me a sec…”

“Nonsense, kiddo, you need to get ready for today’s work and… I think I fancy a good walk in this weather,” his mom said. “Ana, darling, could you come by around… six? I have some papers for your thesis that I forgot to bring with me yesterday.”

Ana, still no fully functional but just enough, sense something odd about mama Tracy asking for her to go straight to her house and just no dropping said papers when she went to Eden, but seeing that Tony didn’t comment anything and maybe realizing there was something else there, she just nodded and smiled.

“Splendid, darling, and could you bring with you some blackthorn, mayflower and mustard seed, please?”

Tony was, to said the least, really confused… His mom was eccentric and she could be forgetful, but she just said she’ll be at Eden and now was requesting for Ana to go to her house and to bring a very weird assortment of plants when she could pick them up when she arrived at the store.

Ana was still smiling and nodding, but she shot the same confused look at Tony when he was passing by on his way to accompany his mom to the front door, so he just shrugged and sent his best _“Mama knows what’s best”_ look to Ana in return. Tony had learned (and Ana a bit later) that it was better to listen to Mama Tracy, no matter how weird or out of place some things might seem, everything was how it was for a reason and it would make sense later on.

“Mama, really, I can take you…”

“Hush, you,” his mom was already at the door, picking her flowery bag from the rack. She turned and Tony bowed to accepted the goodbye kiss he knew his mom was about to give him, but instead he was surprise by the very thigh hug he received. “You have grown so much, my darling, and you have become an incredible man. Never forget that I love you, that I’m so very proud of you and all that I’ve ever wanted was to keep you safe.”

Those words were whispered into Tony’s ear and, with a last squeeze and a quick kiss, his mom was out of the door before he could say anything.

The weather was still warm and the breeze was coming in through the open door, but the feeling of dread had grown so much and solidify with those last words from his mom that he couldn’t feel the warmth… Because, it felt to Tony, as if his mom was saying goodbye.

____________________________________________

Tony was a mess, but unless you knew him as well as Ana did, you wouldn’t be able to tell… He smiled at the clients that came into Eden to buy new flowers for their gardens, signed the papers of the shipping for London, tended to the plants with the same precision a surgeon might treated a patient, which meant he was acting as the same old Tony, unless you looked very closely at the little details: he kept pulling at his pierced eyebrow (which was turning the skin around the little black piercing a reddish hue), the smile never reached his eyes and he avoided eye contact with everyone, always looking at his hands or the mouths of people, his nails had the polish all but remove from one or two fingers from his nervous bites.

Also, she was certain he didn’t change the bandage from his injured arm this morning, which meant his beloved serpent tattoo might not heal well (so out of character for her drama queen best friend, since he adored that tattoo)... This day was becoming uncertain after the odd behavior of Mama Tracy at the cottage, which, Ana was certain, had something to do with the weird man from last night.

Ana had always believed in the supernatural, not only in witches and what she could do since she was a child, but also in all those late night tales about magical and terrible creatures that dwell in the hidden places of the world, and last night, some voice root deep within her had screamed that the man that had walked into her kitchen was very dangerous and very unnatural, in some way, and the need to protect her beloved best friend kicked into gear and she was ready to stab the man if he took a step closer.

After Mama Tracy had taken the man outside and she had stayed with Tony brewing the tea, she had been so restless that she almost burned her fingers on the stove.

“Annie! Careful, are you okay?” Tony was fussing around her, picking her hand and checking for injuries.

“I’m fine,” she said, pulling her hand away. “More important, Tony, who’s that man? Why did you bring him here?”

“He’s a… friend?” Tony faltered. “Listen, I like him and when we got talking earlier he told me he loved to meet my friends, so I brought him here to introduced him to you, which was kind of weird considering you almost stabbed him with the jam knife.”

Ana looked back towards the front door, a part of her warning her that the weird man was listening, even thought he was out of earshot; a chill ran through her and she turned to the stove to plucked the tea pot from the fire.

“I don’t like him, Tony, it gives me the creeps… I can’t feel him completely, it’s like he’s a ghost,” Ana couldn’t explain the strange feeling the man gave her, but it was as if that extra sense she had always relay on was out of focus, it had become grey and dull when she had looked at this, what Tony had called him? Aziraphale Something.

“Anathema, please, don’t involve your witchy stuff into this,” Tony was arranging the cups on a silver tray with enough force to break them. “I like him, I really do, so please, could you make an effort to really get to know him instead of saying that the stars or the smoke or the trees told you he’s a bad person. Please? For me?”

Ana knew Tony was pissed since he had called her for her full name, but he also had said please, which meant he really DID like this man, so he just nodded and let him go.

A few minutes later, Tony and Mama Tracy reentered the cottage, with the tea untouched, and told her Aziraphale and his nephew-whatever-his-name-was would visit Eden the next day and that was the end of that… Or it was, until later that night, Ana’s dreams became dark and confusing: Tony was in the dream, as well as Adam, and, surprisingly, so was Warlock and this Aziraphale fellow, but everything was a blur of darkness and voids, red currents and screams, which had Ana vaulting awake every few hours, which left her tired and very scared.

Now, looking at Tony, she decided not to bring those dreams up, just to spare her best friend more concern; so, instead, she went to the back and brew one of her special tea concoctions, with light touches of rose, that she knew would calm her and Tony’s nerves.

When she came back out, Tony was finishing with the last costumer in the shop, so she took a seat by the front window and signal him to joined her; he made his way towards her, letting himself drop down into the love seat at her side, laying his head on her shoulder and sighing, letting go of his “business face” and just relaxing against her.

She raised his right hand and started petting in a soothing way Tony’s red curls, which had turn a light auburn in the late afternoon light, dropping quick kisses at the top of her best friend’s head for then nuzzling in and taking his hand in hers… This was what they have always been, ever since college, they had always found comfort and solace in the light touches they offer each other, when they were sad, confused, angry or lonely.

Ana loved Tony, she once told him he was the brother she never had, her other half, her soul mate, that she actually believed destiny had crossed their paths, and Tony had reciprocated the feeling, agreeing that before Ana, he had never felt so close to a friend before… Strangers often believed them to be the cutest couple ever and congratulate them in their special bond, at which point both friends just laugh and hold each other tighter.

 _Love doesn’t need to be romantic to be real, you know?_ Ana used to tell people when they realized Tony’s interest lay somewhere else and Ana had always thought of him as a brother, even before she knew Tony was completely and utterly gay.

When Tony’s aura was a bit less blue and his presence felt lighter, Ana let go oh his hand and reached for the tea pot, pouring the now cool tea for the both of them.

“Ana,” Tony said as he accepted the cup. “Annie, I’m so sorry about last night… I just, I don’t know… Please, forgive me, I was such an ass.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Ana took a sip from the cup, and then turn around to face her best friend. “It was so out of place for me to go crazy on you for someone you wanted me to meet, it was just… you know, witchy thing and stuff, he just felt kind of weird, just like…”

“Just like Warlock, right?”

“You knew?” Ana asked.

“It’s not like a _“knew”_ something, Annie, I just know you well enough to distinguish when you are giving someone the stinky eye.”

Ana didn’t push the issue, since she knew, for years now, that Tony sometimes saw and felt more than a normal person, maybe not as much as she, but her best friend had a way of looking at the world that he didn’t let people know of.

“Whatever it was, Tony, I’m really sorry about it and I promise I’ll be in my best behavior today when this Aziraphale fellow shows up,” Tony gave her a doubtful look. ”Hey, cross my heart on that, I promise I won’t try to stab him…”

“Or his nephew,” Tony added.

“Or his nephew with any of the very deadly tools with have for sale.”

Tony held for a moment the serious face, but then he just snorted and started laughing, which made Ana laugh in return, watching how the air around her best friend shine and the blue got wash away; they laughed for another solid minute, washing away tears and holding their stomachs, letting go of all the troubles for a while.

“Annie, thank you,” Tony hiccupped. “I really needed that.”

“Are you kidding me? My role as your best friend is embarrassing you in front of your crush and making you laugh until you snort so loud that everyone is looking at you.” Ana teased him about an incredible New Year’s dinner and how Tony had almost chocked on his flute of cheap champagne. “But seriously, are you really okay? This morning, you know…”

“Mama was acting weird, well, weirder than usual and, I don’t know, back there for a second I felt she was saying goodbye or something,” Tony had reigned himself. “I know is stupid, is not like mama is leaving or something, it’s just…”

“A witchy feeling?” Tony rolled his eyes at that. “Listen, Mama Tracy always knows what she’s doing and how she’s doing it, and she loves you, she’ll never leave you, maybe she just wants to come here without a whole lot of books for me and stuff, and probably want the plants for some sort of tea that she’ll bring.”

Although Ana spoke her true feelings, she still felt some kind of disturbance ( _Like in the Force_ , Tony had told her once), but she wanted to believe it was because of the lack of sleep and the weirdness from last night, so she just smiled and pushed Tony a bit in a playful way.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Tony looked at his clock on his phone. “Why don’t you take the Bentley, so you can pick up everything mom gives you, take it home and then both of you can come back.”

“I thought I was a menace for your poor baby,” Ana teased him.

“Just try not to scratch the paint, please.”

_________________________________________

The sun had almost set when Ana left the shop, running almost an hour and a half late because their last costumer had taken his sweet time choosing between what peonies would looked better when they bloomed, the next spring… Tony had tried to made Ana leave more than once, but Mr. Tyler was adamant that both of them gave him their opinions.

Tony decided that, while he waited for everyone to return or to arrive, he could start carrying the seeds and supplements for tomorrow and started arraigning the shop.

A few minutes later, while he was trying to moved a very heavy sack of soil, the front door opened and the voice he had been waiting to hear all day filled the shop, “Good evening, Anthony.”

The bad part was that in his haste to turn around, Tony ended up making a very weird twirl and landing on his arse, cursing out loud and sending a threat to any cosmic presence that might have thought it was funny to fuck him right in front of Zira.

“Oh, dear, are you okay?” In a flash, Zira was there, helping him up.

“Y-yeah, you just startled me, that’s all,” Tony pat his backside, trying to dust off the little bits of soil that had stuck themselves in his jeans. “I thought you might no come, it’s a bit late.”

“My apologies, dear boy, I must admit I over slept today,” he gave Tony one his beautiful smiles. “But here I am, although I can’t help but notice that I’m the only one.”

Tony fumbled for words, panicking over the fact that Zira might be thinking that this “meeting” between his mom and friends was a ruse to get him alone again, so he threw in the first thing that crossed his mind.

“Well, yeah, I thought you were coming with your nephew.

“He’s on his way, do not worry, he was just finishing dinner.”

“Oh,” now Tony felt like a complete asshole. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so defensive… My mom and Ana are running a bit late, so is Adam, but I’m sure they’ll be here shortly.”

Tony had called Adam’s house a few times over the day, since the boy didn’t own a cellphone, and after not been able to reach him after school, his mom just told him that he had told her that after going with his friends, he was dropping by Eden (then, Deirdre made Tony promised to take Adam home not after 9).

Tony was fidgeting with the last bit of nail polish in his left pinky, trying to think of a way to make this conversation less awkward, when Zira cleared his throat.

“Well, best to occupy ourselves while we wait for the rest, right?” He bent to pick up the sack Tony had left forgotten on the ground. “I can help you with this.”

“Wait, Zira, that’s really…”

Like it weighted nothing, Zira picked up the sack and throw over his shoulder, looking completely fine and not so out of breath as Tony had been while he was dragging the bloody thing around.

“You were saying, dear?”

Tony, completely amazed by how much strength this delicate man seemed to have, just pointed in the right direction and Zira carried the sack, putting it down as if it were a pillow full of feathers instead of hard soil.

_How the fuck did he do that? That sack was about 30 bloody kilograms of pure soil!_

As if reading his thoughts, Zira turned around and said, “I must say I do exercise now and then, so do not worry, Anthony, I can help you with the heavy lifting”. The blond man smiled again, just like before, as if Tony was missing out on a very enjoyable joke.

Well, Tony thought, as people said: “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. The red headed man just smiled in return to his companion and pointed to the back of the store so Zira could follow.

__________________________________________

Ana was driving the ancient Bentley as fast as she dared in the small and rural streets of Tadfield, she didn’t want to fall into a pothole and had a flat tire or something (she would never hear the last of it, if it happened again), but still she was pressing on an alarming speed for the nice folks of the town.

Mama Tracy wasn’t someone who loose sleep over tardiness (many of her students took advantage of that at first, but then decided against it when they had realized how fun drama classes were), so Ana knew that she was probably grading papers or reading the tarot or making tea, but there, on the back of Ana’s mind, something was telling her that she wouldn’t have enough time… For what exactly, she wasn’t sure.

When she arrived, the curtains of the small house Mama Tracy called home were shut thigh, but Ana could see the little scooter parked by the front door and dim lights coming from the kitchen, so she took that as a good sign; as she was stepping down from the car, a chill ran down her spine, but decided to keep walking towards the front door, but just before she knocked, she threw her hair over one shoulder, shielding her face as she searched for what had made her so nervous…

There, a few meters down the road, was a dark van parked, which was strange since she didn’t recognize it, because she knew all the cars in Tadfield, seeing as many of the townspeople hadn’t change their means of transport in a while, and the hour was very late for a delivery service to come knocking on doors. Ana was certain someone inside that van was staring at her and at Mama Tracy’s home.

Before she could decide on what to do, a hand closed around her wrist and pulled from her, a scream half way out of her mouth she realized Mama Tracy had opened and closed de door after pulling her in; the small woman was bolting that same door, and Ana could see how her aura was going from panic purple to red anger to bright orange determination, in such a rapid succession it made Ana dizzy.

“Mama Tracy, what’s…?

“My darling Ana, I wish there was more time,” the woman that had become a second mother far from home turned to her, and Ana could see the same emotions that swirled around her in Mama Tracy’s eyes. “Did you bring the plants that I asked you this morning?”

“Yes, they are in the car, but… What’s happening? Tony, he…” Ana heard the screech of tires outside, and she knew without even looking that the van had leave the street, but instead of feeling relived, dread filled her.

“Ana, dear, listen, because I only have time to ell you this once, before my mistakes and selfishness reach and destroy someone’s life,” Mama Tracy pulled Ana into the kitchen, where an assortment of herbs, tarot cards, different sigils and symbols and little packages of what appear to be letters where scattered through the whole kitchen, from where she plucked a green book, it was leathery and worn out, bound by a little black cord she recognized as one Tony used to wear when his hair was longer in his college years; the book was very heavy and many pieces of paper stick out, from which Ana recognized Mama Tracy’s handwriting.

“Everything you need to know about what’s happening is in this, show it to Mr. Frye and he’ll know exactly what to do,” Mama Tracy placed a hand warm and loving hand on Ana’s cheek. “You’ve been such a bright light in the life of my beloved son and for that, I’ll always be grateful and will love you with all my heart, my dear child.”

Ana realized she was crying, the feeling of dread was choking her and now she understood what Tony had said earlier, because this is what that was: Mama Tracy was saying goodbye to her.

“When I leave this house, count until a hundred and then get into the Bentley and go back for Tony and Mr. Frye, who I assumed is already in company of my son. Give the book to Mr. Frye and do as you are asked. With the herbs I asked to bring, as soon as you can, brew a tea and make sure you and Tony drink it, but only you two, since that concoction is lethal for the Kindred.”

“Kindred?” Ana’s brain was swirling with questions and her heart was heavy on her chest. “Mama Tracy, please, I… don’t get any of this. Please, let’s go to the shop and you can tell us what’s happening, Tony is…”

“I know, but as I said, there’s no time,” Mama Tracy put a strand of Ana’s chocolate hair behind her ear and smiled a sad smile. “Tell my son that I love him and to never forget that.”

With that final note, Mama Tracy picked her big and bright pink bag and rushed to the door. “Remember, Ana, count until a hundred,” and the, she disspared.

Ana was left there, in the middle of a messy kitchen, still smelling as the incense Mama Tracy loved and she let herself cried, and she cried and cried until she reached a hundred and also bolted for the door.

_______________________________________

Adam had walked all the way to Eden from the Them secret base at the woods, where he had said goodbye to his best friends after he had told them a bit of what was happening… He knew they probably thought it was another game Adam was trying to play.

_Vampires? As if such things existed…_

But they existed, the proof was probably still sleeping under his bed and he needed to hurry so he could go back to be by Warlock’s side with a way of leaving Tadfield and searching for the Camarilla or whatever Warlock had called the kings of vampires.

After Adam had invited in Warlock (which required a bit of nerve after seeing a flying boy with enormous fangs outside his window), the other boy had told him everything he knew: vampires were real, Warlock was one, and bad people were conspiring to bring an end to them and Adam was key in that plan, since he descended from a long and ancient line of the first vampire.

Adam knew he was adopted, that was no secret, his parents had told him when he was ten and had found, by accident while he played at being an important judge, his adoption papers in his father study; as a young child he had felt out of place and sad, until Crowley had come and told him that no matter what a paper said, his parents were his parents because love was more important than blood, and that was the end of it.

But now, knowing what he knew (even if it was little, since Warlock didn’t know much either, seeing as the bad guys didn’t tell him anything and he just eavesdrop now and then), Adam wanted to do this, to save a race of very cool although very frightening creatures that, in some way, were as an extended family… And also, he wanted to save Warlock too.

The plan was simple: he would go to Crowley, who had always say and promise to be there for any adventure Adam had in mind, so Adam would ask him to go with them (Anathema could come too) and find the vampires that could help them, but with being incredibly careful, since Warlock had said there were also some bad vampires that were in league with the bad guys.

It was very late and Adam knew it was probable that Crowley had already left for home, but when Eden came into view, he let a relived sigh at seeing the lights of the shop still on and at seeing Crowley inside, in the company of a very weird looking man (maybe an important client?), so he jogged the last few meters, not seeing the black van that was pulling at that moment from behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens and so does my resolve to write more often that what I've been writing lately, so, no promises, but I really hope to update once per week from now on. Also, as a side note, from the next chapter there will be blood and very light graphic descriptions of violence, so be warned about it and take precautions. 
> 
> As usual, this work needs revision and might have spelling and grammatical errors. Thanks for keep reading, for your patience and for all your kudos and comments, you are awesome!


	9. The Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allies and friends, foes and enemies... As Tony and Aziraphale grow closer, the real forces behind The Corruption come to light, and in this faithful night, the hunt begins, the question is: Who hunts who?
> 
> WARNING: From this chapter on, the story will contain small depictions of graphic violence, so read with caution.

Aziraphale had never been fan of heavy work or the outdoors in general, not even when he was still alive, since these things required a lot of endurance that he didn’t have back then and could spoil his reading materials; even after gaining enough strength to tear a door out of its frame and a blessed endurance to carry around enough books to break his arms, he still preferred to sit down and never work very hard.

But now, seeing how adorable and amazed Anthony looked, Aziraphale was starting to liked carrying sacks of soil and dragging big boxes full of gardening tools around one of the lushest and more beautiful stores he had ever been in his life (and un-life); Anthony had failed to mention the night before how unique his store was, but Aziraphale had been impressed by how wild and full of life it felt, and Anthony had brushed off with “I have a degree in Botanic Sciences, so it’s not a big deal, I swear.”

Even thought Aziraphale should be focused on what answers the night might bring, he was completely devoted to helping Anthony, and yes, he might have been bending the rules of the Masquerade a bit in displaying a strength a “human” like him might no posses, but Anthony was beaming and smiling and teasing and (if Aziraphale was correct) flirting.

The blond vampire had dressed in his best garments for the night (just because it’s the right thing to do, no because he was trying to impress someone), but by now he had discarded his coat and rolled his sleeves up, not because he was hot by the work, but because it had earned him a side and long look from Anthony, and that had been a bliss.

Anthony had shed his jacket too, and Aziraphale got a first good look to what he had correctly assumed was a bandage in the red headed man’s left arm, which was also covered in a very intricate and elaborate black serpent tattoo, that coiled and climbed from Anthony’s wrist to go under his short sleeve t-shirt.

“That’s quite a tattoo you have there, dear boy,” Aziraphale said, actually very impressed by the art work. “Why a snake, if I may ask?”

“I love snakes,” Anthony was behind the counter, rearranging the little pots that contained soil samples. “People think they are very disgusting or evil, but I find them fascinating and graceful: how they move, how the hunt and how they act in general, they are beautiful predators… And, they eat every single pest that could ruin my plants.”

“I see, I actually have never thought of snakes that way,” Aziraphale smiled at Anthony. “But why do you cover it with a bandage? Did you have some work on it?”

“Ah, no, this was an accident a few days ago… Remember that I said that I’ve been having a lot of hits to my head lately? Well, this happened on my birthday, kind of a weird story…”

Before Anthony could said anything else, the front door opened and a boy step in, he had brown curly hair, very bright blue eyes and his cheeks were rosy, from the wind or from exhortation, Aziraphale couldn’t tell, so he was about to asked him what was wrong when the boy dashed around him and throw himself at Anthony, hugging the tall man from the waist.

“Crowley, I’m so happy you’re still here, I need to talk to you”

“Hey, brat,” Anthony put a caring hand on the boy’s head and smiled down at him. “Did you ran all the way here? You know your parents are going to freak out if the found out you just arrive, right? Where were you?”

“I can explain, but…” the boy seemed to finally noticed Aziraphale was still standing there. “Um, hi, good evening, sir.”

“Good evening, young sir,” Aziraphale made a little bow and his mind was racing with questions and possibilities… Could this be the boy he was looking for? He certainly seemed very close to Anthony, so maybe this was… “I am to presume you are Adam Young, aren’t you?”

The boy opened his eyes a bit and turned around to looked directly at Anthony, his stare demanding answers.

“Yes, Zira, this is Adam,” Anthony detangled the boy’s arms from his waist and turned him around. “Adam, this is Aziraphale Frye, a friend of mine.”

Adam stared back at Aziraphale, and the blond vampire tried to feel something from this boy, some sort of power, of pull, of anything that might speak to his vampire blood that this small child was to be the savior of his whole race.

“Hello, Mr. Frye, good to meet you,” the boy said with a formal if distracted demeanor before turning around and started pulling from Anthony’s arm. “Can I please, please talk to you,” Adam turned around to look at Aziraphale. “In private?” This last bit was a low whisper that Aziraphale’s keen ears didn’t miss.

Before the blond vampire could suggest anything, the door opened again, letting in a wisp of fresh night air and, with it, a pungent smell that Aziraphale’s recognized immediately: it was the smell of a freshly crush mix of juniper and hawthorn, the strong repellant that only some sort of individuals new how to use it.

 _The Society of Leopold, of course_ , Aziraphale kicked himself mentally. The Camarilla had been pointing fingers at the Gangrel clan this whole time, seeing how none of the exiled vampires had been seen or heard since the Corruption began and none had presented themselves before Mother when they had been called, but the Camarilla have overlook another threats just because it was easy to believed only another Kindred would now about the First Blood… How wrong they had been.

The two strangers in front of him, a man and a woman, were clad in jeans, heavy boots and long coats (Aziraphale just knew what kind of weapons they could have been carrying); the woman was looking around, assessing the environment, while the man, a big nasty looking fellow, had his eyes trained behind Aziraphale, and the blond vampire was certain the were fixed in the young boy still clutching Anthony’s arm.

“Hold that thought,” Anthony’s voice came low from behind, but Aziraphale still didn’t move from were he was standing. “Hey, evenin’ folks, what can I do for you? The store is close, but if it’s an emergency we can work something out.”

Aziraphale’s mind was racing, he was taking shallow breaths and trying to relax, because the smell of the mixture both Hunters were wearing was starting to trigger his fight or flight reflex, and even thought he was he could take both of them, he wanted to minimized danger for Anthony and for Adam. _Where is Newton?_ The young vampire was supposed to be there by now.

Neither the woman nor the man answer, she just moved to cover the door and Aziraphale could discern the speeding heartbeat of Anthony’s heart behind him and a low and terrified whisper from Adam: _It’s them, the bad ones are here…_

“Excuse me, young man,” Aziraphale found his voice and muster enough control over his tone to speak up. “As you’ve been told, the store is close, so, if you don’t have a request for the owner, I suggest you and your companion leave before it gets darker outside.”

“Zira, what…” Anthony’s tone was fearful, so Aziraphale gazed back for a moment to see how the redheaded man was shielding Adam with his body and his left arm was stretched as if he could drag back Aziraphale back to him too.

“Anthony, please…"

Before anything else could have been said or done, Aziraphale felt a terrible pain in his left shoulder, it burned and ached, so he whirled around bearing his fangs, hissing and lashing out at the very sneaky Hunter who had stabbed him; the man jumped out of Aziraphale’s swing, which had been aimed at his throat and would have probably killed him if it had strike.

“What the fuck?! Aziraphale!” Anthony was screaming behind him, but he couldn’t turn around, so Aziraphale just felt for the knife still lodge into his shoulder, pull it out and let it drop to the ground, where it clanked and spilled blood and some kind of black gore that Aziraphale couldn’t stop to examine right now.

“Fucking leach!” The male hunter lifted his long coat to reveal and assortment of silver knifes and two pistols, probably loaded with silver bullets. “Take the boy, I got this one!”

The woman was already trying to sprint to reach for Anthony and Adam and the man was coming with a knife in each hand, so Aziraphale moved at the incredible speed of the Ventrue clan, which turned him into a blur, before he intercepted the woman, lifting her with ease and tossing her against her companion… They both landed in a heap in the ground, breaking a few pots of flowers along the way, and for the smell of fresh blood that drenched the air, Aziraphale knew one of them had been hurt.

“I will say it again, the store is close, please leave before it gets darker outside,” Aziraphale’s voice had lost its charm and was pure ice right now, he knew his fangs were completely elongated and his eyes were bright enough to look closer to ice blue than their normal baby blue; he also knew Anthony and Adam were both against the back corner, with the young man still protecting the boy with his body… Aziraphale couldn’t think about that now, he would worry about having broke the Masquerade when the Hunters had been dealt with.

The male Hunter stood up first, grunting, and while he helped his companion onto her feet, Aziraphale saw a long gash in her arm and blood started to drip to the floor, which the Beast within him rejoice at the sight of wounded prey. _Focus!_ Aziraphale reined himself and stood his ground, assessing his surroundings for any other threats, wondering how much longer it will take Newton to reach Tadfield.

“What the actual fuck was that?” the female Hunter was holding her injured arm, while she kept her eyes in Aziraphale. “ _He_ said this leach was the easy target from the two, not strong or threatening in any way.”

“Get yourself together,” the male Hunter plucked another knife and one of the pistols, aiming it at Aziraphale. “Go and get the boy, quickly, I’ll deal with this.”

Aziraphale didn’t know who they were talking about, but someone knew about him and probably about Newton, so that only could meant something: someone inside the Camarilla was working with the Society and have betray them.

The woman started moving towards Anthony crouched figure on the other side of the counter, but before Aziraphale could move there, he felt kind of light headed and his vision blur, but it was enough for the male Hunter to be on top of him: he stabbed Aziraphale again, this time under the ribs and twisted the knife. _Fuck this!_ Aziraphale roared and move just in time to avoid the ringing shot that would had lodged in his head.

Aziraphale step back and pull the knife out, his waistcoat and shirt were ruined, totally covered in blood, while his trousers were stained and rip, but what concerned Aziraphale (more than the loss of his beloved and favorite waistcoat) was that the deep and wide cut in his stomach was healing very slow; granted, cuts made by silver heal slowly, but this was different… something was wrong.

The war cry of the Hunter made him react by instinct, dodging a blow to his head, and rolling away… The man was still coming at him and now Aziraphale was exactly by the window, even farther away from Anthony and Adam, and he could see that the female woman had corner them by the entrance to the back of the shop.

He needed to do something before this went sideways… He knew the Society tried to never harm human beings, but this two had opened fire and attacked a vampire in front of Anthony, which meant he was in more danger than Aziraphale could imagine.

“I’ll take your head, monster,” the male Hunter advanced and Aziraphale had a clear view of the female Hunter, she was holding a knife and pointing it at Anthony. Aziraphale’s vision went red and something snapped: the Beast had awoken and it was very hungry and ragging.

The Hunter swung at Aziraphale, confident enough that he had it… He didn’t. Aziraphale dodge the blow (the Hunter’s arm barely grazed his hair), used the momentum of the man’s forced, grabbed his arm and, in a swift motion, had the Hunter pinned against the floor; Aziraphale twisted the man’s arm until the bone cracked, and the again until it shattered and then until the upper section came out clean above his elbow.

Screams of agony filled the store and the Beast roared triumphant before it sunk its fangs into the throat of its prey… Lush and dense blood filled the Beast mouth and it bit down harder, crushing the wind pipe and severing the muscles of what once had been a man.

Far away, someone was screaming, but the Beast didn’t care, until it heard a loud bang and glass cascaded over its back; it reared back and, in a moment, the Beast had returned to its resting place, sedated and full, and Aziraphale pull himself away from the remains of the Hunter.

“You son of a bitch!” the female Hunter was trembling, crying and holding a pistol aimed at him, her injury had caused her to miss the first shot, but Aziraphale knew she wouldn’t miss the second. “I’ll kill you, fucker! I’ll fucking kill…”

A loud crack and the woman fell to the ground in a heap (she was still breathing, so she was only unconscious), and there was Anthony, standing behind her with a shovel in his hands, looking ruffled and scared, but standing his ground and still protecting Adam with his body.

Aziraphale stood up and tried to regained some composure, dusting his trouser as if that could clean away the blood, but his hands were also stained with it, so he just sighed a little and look up from the mess he had made. Anthony was still by the back door entrance, looking at Aziraphale with a void look, no fear or terror in his golden eyes.

“Aziraphale…” Anthony said with a calm voice. “What in the HELL are you?”

___________________________________

Tony was tripping, that was the only logic explanation, he probably sniffed something from one of the flowers and that made him hallucinated the last five minutes of his life… But no, the store had a mixed smell of soil and blood, the shovel in his hands felt very real, the woman that he had hit with it was unconscious at his feet while the man (or what remained of him) was a mess in front of him and Adam was clutching tightly at the back of his shirt, his sobs were low, but Tony could hear them.

And, in front of him, was Aziraphale… Kind, soft spoken, sweet Aziraphale, who was almost completely covered in blood, his clothes were ruined, torn apart in a lot of places and his beautiful white blond locks were also smeared with blood; the place where the blood was more prominent was around his mouth (that soft mouth) and Tony could still see the points of the two fangs while Aziraphale was working on saying something.

Tony was blinking fast, trying to come up with an explanation, because things like this (he just couldn’t bring himself to think about the “v” word) weren’t real, there was no magic, no occult creatures, no nightmarish monsters.

“Aziraphale…” his voice was calmer than he thought it would be. “What in the HELL are you?”

Before the blond man could answer, two things happened at once: a screeching of tires came from the outside of the shop, followed by running feet on the cobblestone path; the second thing was that from the busted front window, Zira’s nephew came almost flying in, hissing and bearing his fangs (Fuck, fuck, fuck!) and then Ana was almost kicking down the front door and throwing herself inside.

The five of them froze in the middle of what seemed like crime scene: Tony stood where he was, Zira also stood where he was, Adam took a peek from behind Tony (but almost immediately went back to his hiding place after seeing the carnage), Ana took everything in with bleary eyes (had she been crying?) and after seeing that Tony was okay, her gaze fell upon Newt, who was the stillest of them all and his mouth was hanging completely open.

“Newt?” Ana said, almost in shock.

“Anathema?” It was the first time Tony heard the guy speak and his tone was even more surprised (and a bit scared) than Ana’s.

Nobody move, nobody said anything, and that moment stay suspended for what felt like millennia, and then, as one, everyone was trying to reach for someone: Tony grabbed Adam’s hand and rushed to Ana’s side, his best friend seemed dizzy, but still lifted her arms and throw them around his shoulders; Newt had walked forward, almost reaching for Ana, and Zira had moved in that same fast way that before and was now beside Tony.

“Anthony, please look at me…”

“Anathema, what are you doing here?”

“Newt, you can’t be here… They say… I thought…”

“Crowley, Crowley, we need to go… the Hunters, they are gonna hurt him”

All the eyes in the room flew towards the still very scared boy, Anthony crouched down (he was very aware of the blood staining his boots) and used most of his body to shield Adam from the horror behind him.

“Who, Adam? What’s going on?”

“Warlock, he’s at my home… I came here tonight so you could take us away before they came, but Lock didn’t think they could be so close already.”

Millions of questions flew through Tony’s mind, making him feel so out of place, as if the world was tumbling from under his feet… He wanted to ask, but he was afraid to know the answer, even when, deep inside, he knew that Warlock was, must certainly, the same creature Aziraphale and Newton (Tony was completely sure they weren’t related).

“Adam,” Aziraphale had also crouched next to Tony, and although he really tried to suppress a shudder, he realized he didn’t succeed by the little painful winced from Zira’s eyes. “This Warlock, is he like me?”

“Yes,” Adam nodded. “He came to my home last night and he told me, about the vampires and the Hunters, and how important I am to the last ones… Warlock was supposed to find me and take me back, but he didn’t, because he knew his… sire?” Aziraphale nodded. “His sire had lied and they are planning something horrible.”

This made even less sense to Tony, but Zira, Newton and even Ana a little, seemed to understand what was going on, which kind of pissed him off, so he tried to channel everything in this anger he was feeling, but before he can express anything, Tony heard a faint ping from behind. _Shit, that can’t be good…_

“I’ll take you all with me…” the woman had woken up and now was holding something that Tony had only seen in movies: a grenade and he could had sworn it was ticking… To soon, the grenade seemed to tick for the last time and the last thing Tony saw was the maniac smile in the woman’s face before the world was consume by a white light.

___________________________________

Ana was coughing and her ears were ringing from the loud bang that had went off inside of the shop, which was now smoking from the fire that had started to spread.

Newt’s body was still covering hers and right beside them were Tony and Adam, both wrapped very tightly in Aziraphale’s arms… Both vampires (Ana was certain now what kind of creature they were) had reacted faster than any human could have, taken hold of the three of them, jumped and almost flew from the shop before the blast could caught them.

Ana’s mind was racing with everything that had happened and was still happening, but she needed to put her priorities in order and to start sorting everything when they were safe, so he pushed Newt’s body with all her might.

“Move!” Ana shouted. “Let me up.”

Newt looked down and her, and Ana was again struck by the very sight of him, of his big blue eyes, his crazy short hair and his mouth, which now was hanging open, letting Ana see the two fangs that hadn’t been there the last she had been with him… _No, this is too mucho to unpack right now._

She pushed him again and this time he moved, helping her up to her feet, letting her go when she rushed to Tony’s side; he was also standing, keeping a safe distance from Aziraphale and holding Adam’s hand, and thank God both seemed unharmed, both Tony was unmoving, watching how Eden started to burn faster, the flowers and plants, the gardening supplies, the seed and soils, everything was going up in smoke…

“Tony…” Ana reached for his hand and he take it with such strength that it was almost painful, but she let him, knowing full well how much their shop had meant to him, so he let him mourned.

“Anathema,” Tony was still staring at his beloved shop, Newt and Aziraphale were at their side and the shouts from the neighbors were starting, they needed to move and quickly. “Annie, where’s my mom?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been stuck with a writer's block for more than a week, but I finally got to finish this chapter! I will continue working, since we're almost halfway there and the climax is coming, so please send good vibes!
> 
> As usual, this work needs revision and might contain grammatical errors. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and all your support, you are the best!


	10. The Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tadfield is getting even more dangerous and the truth is now in the open: Aziraphale isn't exactly human and Tony must deal with this revelation; but as he tries to wrap his mind around it, he also needs to make a final attempt at rescuing more than one life from the real evil that's hunting them.

Anthony was in a very foul mood and that was an understatement: he was pulling his hair, hitting violently the steering wheel of his car (which trouble Aziraphale, since Anthony could get seriously hurt) and was screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs.

After the grenade the Huntress had detonated and the liquid fire (a very nasty weapon The Society used to get rid of vampires fairly quickly) had spread, consuming everything inside Anthony’s shop, the five of them had relocated into Anthony’s old Bentley and had speed off from there before the curious town’s people could get a look at the horrible crime scene they had fled from (and before anyone could get a good look at Aziraphale’s current state of crazy bloodthirsty vampire).

When they deemed that the distance was safe, Anathema Device had made a quick retelling of what had happened with Madame Tracy: how the old woman had entrusted her with a bound book, how she had told Anathema to trust only in Aziraphale for this matter and how (it was at this moment when the girl started crying silently and Anthony had lost his mind) Madame Tracy had left in a hurry to try to “atone for her mistakes”.

Aziraphale was trying to connected the dots and come with a solution, since Anthony was mere seconds away from throwing the car into gear and start looking for her mother around town, Hunters and vampires be damn, he needed to make sure she was safe.

Also, young Adam was in a same state of frenzy for the wellbeing of his (Aziraphale still couldn’t believe it) vampire friend hiding in his house… If what the boy was telling the truth, then The Society was working side by side with a faction of vampires, thus how they had learnt about The First Blood.

“I don’t care, Anathema, I need to find her!” Anthony was screaming and, Aziraphale just noticed, crying tears of worry and rage. “I don’t have a fucking idea what the hell is going on, but if those crazy bastards weren’t the only two in town and mom…” he hesitated a bit her. “Knew something about his, whatever this is, she might be in danger, too!”

“Anthony…” Aziraphale reached from the backseat, trying to console the panicking redheaded man.

“DON’T.FUCKING.TOUCH.ME!” Anthony had moved out of the way and, in the darkness that surrounded them, his gold eyes seemed to burn with a fire that was impossible to quell. “I don’t fucking know you, at all! I don’t know what you are and I’m not sure I even want to know, but if those fuckers are here is because of you…”

Aziraphale gasped (a very human reaction) and tried to keep it cool, reigning the burning tears that were stinging his eyes (the last thing he need it right now was to start crying bloody tears and made things worse), but he understood Anthony’s frustration and terror… He had lied to this man, manipulated him and, yes, put him in danger.

“Tony, listen,” Anathema’s voice was calm in the passenger seat, where she had accommodated herself with Adam in her lap. “I also don’t get everything that’s going on, but Mama Tracy said we could trust Aziraphale and maybe there’s a reason for it.”

“I don’t fucking care, Ana,” the curse word seemed to hit Anathema with a physical force. “Mom, my mom, is out there, somewhere in this town doing God knows what and there’s a damn cult or whatever here and they’re fucking crazy and…”

“Maybe she’s in my house”

Everyone stared at Adam, whose complexion was extremely pale, his hair was tousled and with bits of dirt in it, but his big eyes were unblinking and certain, his gaze never wavering.

“Anathema said Madame Tracy said something about “making everything right” and she knew about…” Adam’s eyes moved towards Aziraphale and Newt in the back seat. “About them and about the Hunters, and maybe she also knew about me, too.”

This revelation slapped Aziraphale across the face and, suddenly, it made sense… Madame Tracy knew about The First Blood, The Descendant and The Corruption, so she may had seen The Society coming from Adam and was trying to reach his house in order to save him… Aziraphale knew he should had made this connection earlier, but his head was still a bit fuzzy and shaken, he still felt a bit out of it and, although it had healed, the wound from his shoulder seemed itch a bit. _I worry about that later_.

“Adam, what…” Anthony seemed unimpressed by this, but then Aziraphale interjected.

“I think Mr. Young it’s right,” every pair of eyes turned to Aziraphale, but the only ones he looked back were Anthony’s. “Madame Tracy was supposed to meet us today, since she knew what we were and why we were here, she promised to tell us everything and, I presume, that’s why she left that bound book with you, Miss Device, in case she…”

Aziraphale went silent, since he had just picked up the racing heart from Anthony and, before the blond vampire knew better, Anthony had thrown open his door, step out of the car and started running in the direction, what Aziraphale imagine, was Adam’s house.

The blond vampire also stepped out of the car and, in mere seconds, had tackled Anthony to the ground and pinned his writing figure down, which turn out to be a bad idea: Anthony was screaming, trying to break lose, when Aziraphale caught the most delicious and mouthwatering scent he had ever smell, and it was coming from the body below him… The Beast lifted its head, tasting the air, and growl in anticipation of the very lively prey it had catch.

_No! No! HE’S NOT A PREY!_ Aziraphale screamed mentally and moved out of Anthony’s back, letting the very angry (and very irresistible) man to stand up.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?! I need to go, don’t get it my way, you little…”

“ANTHONY JAY CROWLEY!” Anathema’s scream was loud enough for Aziraphale to turn around and look to see if anyone had heard. “What the hell you think you’re doing?! Are you out of your mind?! You’ll get kill if you go on you own!”

“Shut up! You don’t get to decide what…”

“She’s right, Anthony, don’t be rude to her,” Aziraphale almost shrunk back and hissed when Anthony’s scorching look landed on him. “I’ll go with you.”

That seemed to throw Anthony off balance, since he took a step back and work his mouth, as if trying to said something nasty or hurtful, but the only thing that came out was: “What?”

“Miss Device is right, The Society might not hurt humans, since its whole agenda is save the human race from us, terrible monsters, but you saw what I saw tonight: they don’t mind having minor casualties if it means they can get what they want,” at this, Aziraphale looked back to stared at Adam, who was braked by Anathema and Newt, who had also stepped out of the car. “And you are right, this is my fault, for getting you and your mother and your friend mixed in all this without you even knowing, so let me atoned for my mistakes… I can get us there quickly and silently, we get you mom out and then come back here.”

“Aziraphale,” Anthony said, and, for a moment, the blond vampire got hopeful that, maybe, this man could still forgive him for what he had done.

“HEY!” Adam Young had almost materialized in the middle of their stare down. “My parents and Warlock are also in that house; I just can’t leave them there…”

This was a setback, since, even if it sounded heartless, Aziraphale hadn’t spared much thought about the rest of the possible “casualties” in the Young’s home… He already had The Descendant here and he was just risking saving Madame Tracy in a selfish act of gaining Anthony’s forgiveness.

“No one is staying behind, we’re getting everyone out,” Anthony’s conviction and bravery were commendable, but Aziraphale knew that it was a promise he couldn’t keep. “But you can’t come, Adam.”

“What?! But I…”

“Adam,” Anthony’s voice wasn’t rough or angry, but it made the boy listen. “These crazy fuckers are after you, for some reason I still don’t understand but I’m certainly going to get answers about,” at this, he looked at Aziraphale. “So, you need to stay with Ana, she’ll keep you safe.”

“Young Newton will also assist in keeping you safe, Adam,” Aziraphale nodded to the young vampire. “He’ll keep you and Miss Device both safe.”

Aziraphale had heard Newt’s surprise when he encountered Anathema in Eden, but that was a conversation for when they were all safe and sound, and very far away from Tadfield.

“Newton, take Miss Device and Adam to her cottage, barricade every door and window, and stay vigilant, we won’t be long and we must leave this town at once when we return,” Aziraphale turned to Anathema, who flinched a bit (he knew he still looked like a crazy killer and wish for a change of clothes). “Miss Device, I gather that you had enough formation in natural arts to keep anything unpleasant outside, so I ask you to assist Newton in keeping the cottage safe; then, pack the essentials for you and Anthony, and we deal with what Adam might need when we are in the clear.”

A plan was forming in Aziraphale’s mind and he might have to play with loopholes (a lot of loopholes), so he hoped he could accomplish it and still be out of Tadfield in less than an hour, with Adam, Anathema and Anthony, and on their way to London.

“But Adam, there’s something you can assist me with: I need you to grant me an invitation to your home, please,” the boy nodded, as if he understood more than he let on. “Since you won’t be in your house, you need to be very specific, so repeat this: “I, Adam Young, grant you an open invitation to my home, so you can come and go as you pleased.”

After Adam had muttered the words, Anthony and Anathema seemed to had a silence conversation, but their worries seemed to outweigh any other objection, so the girl end up running and hugging her best friend tightly, with Adam getting pulled also into it; Anathema kissed Anthony’s cheek and whisper: “Find her, and come back.”

Anthony nodded, kiss her in return and place a loving hand in Adam’s head, which made Aziraphale’s death heart constrict in his chest: they might no be a family related by blood, but the three of them cared so much for each other that he felt a stab of envy, wanting to be looked and touched in the same tender way (if the touched came from Anthony, it was all the better).

After their goodbye, the redheaded man turned around and walked towards Aziraphale, his shoulders straight and his gaze unwavering. “Let’s go.”

Aziraphale close the gap between them and, with slow movements, lifted his arms, gesturing for Anthony’s permission.

“Really?” he sounded angry and a bit bewildered.

“It’ll be faster this way and you can tell me where we are going,” Aziraphale kept his voice steady and took a deep breath when Anthony throw his arms around the blond vampire’s shoulders, accommodating himself in Aziraphale’s arms.

Aziraphale got self-conscious about his clothes and all the blood, even when it was almost dry, he knew some of it might stained Anthony; still, he held closer the mortal man he had come to appreciate in a few days and said, “Close your eyes and hold on,” and in a second, they were flying away.

________________________________________

Tony loved speed, he loved the feeling of flying down a road and watching as everything blurred around him; but when Aziraphale had took off with Tony in his arms, the redheaded man had to swallowed a very undignified scream at how fast the blond could run (he still refused to acknowledge the “v” word).

The pressured from the wind had made Tony’s ears pop and he had hold even tighter to Aziraphale’s shoulder, screaming the directions to get to Adam’s house, before finding shelter from the wind that had made his eyes water. He didn’t know where they were or if they were close (or worse, lost), but Tony could feel how Aziraphale’s body move with grace and never took a sharp turn.

Before long, Aziraphale made an abrupt stop and cursed under his breath (even if the curse word used was _“poppycock”_ ), so Tony dared to sneak a peak, now that they weren’t moving at a break neck speed, and decided to curse with a more elegant _“fuck”_ , because there, in front of Adam’s house were at least 4 vehicles that Tony had never seen before, and if that wasn’t enough, the front lawn had two very murderous looking sons of bitches.

“Shit!” Tony murmured. “Now what? We need to get in there!”

Aziraphale was inspecting the side wall of the house they were currently hiding behind and, seeming to located what he wanted, without warning he maneuvered Tony towards his back and he just had the good sense to cling to the blond man’s as a very weird looking chimpanzee, before said blond man started climbing with such an ease that Tony cling ever harder and decided to not look down.

When they were safely in the roof and before he could lose more of his dignity, Tony let go of Aziraphale and instead cling to the edge of the roof, inching a bit closer to get a good look across the street; he slid a bit, and Aziraphale (the cocky bastard was standing as if this was normal for him) reached for him, but Tony just swatted his hand away.

“I’m fine,” Tony saw a bit of hurt in those blue eyes, but right now wasn’t the time to mind his manners, he was still very pissed off. “Now, how do you suggest we get in there to look for my mom, Warlock and the Youngs?”

“Anthony, it’s worse than I thought: that place is crawling with The Society, I can hear at least another dozen heartbeats inside the house, so if we assume your mother and the Adam’s parents are in there, that still leaves nine well trained Hunters.”

Tony wasn’t about to acknowledge that whole bit about hearing the heartbeats, but he realized Aziraphale hadn’t include Warlock in the count, so, did that mean that… _they_ didn’t have a heartbeat? _This is too damn much to handle right now_.

“So?! Didn’t you just rip apart one them a few minutes ago?” Tony saw how Aziraphale winced a bit, so he knew he struck a nerve there, and even when Tony had seen what this blond man could do (the evidence was still all over him), he wasn’t going to back down.

“That… I wish you hadn’t had to witness that, but in any case, I can’t fight such a large group by myself, not even with all my strength and the element of surprise.”

Tony looked again towards the house, trying to think of a plan to get in, because he wasn’t leaving until he fulfilled his promise to Adam and to himself, if he had to fight his way in, so be it… Something shone directly in his eyes and he shielded them with his hand, then after he could focus again, he looked towards the second floor of the house: there, in what Tony knew was Adam’s room, someone was making very inconspicuous signs with what the redheaded assume was a mirror and a little flashlight.

“Warlock!” Tony said. “He’s still in the house!”

“Yes, I’m with Tony and I’m not with them. Is there someone in the second floor?” Aziraphale said and Tony turned to look at him as if he had lost his mind, when he noticed Aziraphale wasn’t paying attention to him at all. “I see; we’ll have to move quickly… Yes, if we distract them, we might have enough time to slip through… Yes, just make sure you open the window, please.”

“What the…”

Before Tony could finish that thought, Aziraphale picked him up once again, this time without asking for permission, and jumped without any impulse to next houses’ roof, landing without a sound, and kept going until they were in the at the far back part of the roof of the house in front of Adam’s.

“We’re in position, when they move, open the window and get ready, we need to be quick about this,” Tony saw how the the silhouette of who he assumed was Warlock move a bit close to the window.

“Anthony, against my better judgment, I’m going to get us inside that house and Mister Warlock there is going to help us achieve it,” he scooped Tony’s whole frame into one arm and leaned over to rip a piece from the roof without effort, just as he was picking a piece of paper. “Hold on tight and let’s hope this works.”

Without another word, Aziraphale threw the piece of roof with proficiency and it smashed against one of the farthest parked cars, which made the two goons from the front lawn to move in unison and pull out their guns from the holsters; Tony hold his breath, fearing they would look over where the projectile had come from, but instead the one on the right started to move towards the car, and the other follow a few steps behind, guarding the back from all sides, not once looking up.

“Now!” Aziraphale breathed while running in silent feet and then jump across the street, with Tony clinging for dear life to him. They landed in Adam’s roof and in a very swift motion, Aziraphale lower Tony’s body in front of the now open window and he was half carried half dragged inside, banging his forehead with the window frame, to then land in an undignified way inside of Adam’s room.

To fast to registered what had just happened, Tony sit and saw that Aziraphale was also inside Adam’s room and was closing, very slowly and quietly, the window. “Dear boy, are you all right?”

Tony decided to ignore that question and get up from the floor, rubbing his again-assaulted-forehead (seriously, he was actually considering this a coma induced dream after all those hits to the head); he looked around and there was Warlock, standing still and watching Aziraphale’s every move.

“Warlock…”

“Where’s Adam?” the boy was now in his face and Tony got the first good glimpsed at this fangs, no as long as Aziraphale’s, but Warlock’s still looked very sharp.

“He’s fine, he’s with Anathema and Newton, he’s… like you,” Tony said. “Warlock, where are Adam’s parents? Is there anyone else downstairs apart from those… hunters?”

The boy seemed distressed and he looked towards Adam’s door, then to Aziraphale and his lips quivered before answering. “They captured them, they needed them alive for the next part of the plan.”

“What is going on, Warlock? Who made you and what clan do you belong? What is the Society planning?”

“Clan?” The boy seemed as lost as Tony felt. “I don’t know… They didn’t tell me much, I just know that _he’s_ coming and my sire is coming with him; he was waiting outside of town, but when that woman showed up…”

The boy seemed in distress as he looked towards the door, focused in something Tony couldn’t hear, which was starting to pissed him off, since this little trick of being able to listen through the walls seemed very useful.

Tony was really tired of this pronoun game of “he”, “that”, “this”, so without thinking much about anything, he walked towards the door and opened it a bit, to check if there was someone outside; with the coast clear, Tony crouched and moved to the stairs’ landing, where he could hear an assemble of voices and there and among the low cacophony, he heard what he dread and hoped.

“Everything is gonna be fine, dear,” his mom’s voice was filled with warmth. “Try to relax, Deirdre dear.”

Tony then hear the soft sobs of Adam’s mom and he could almost picture his mom holding her hands and petting her hair, and that sole image made him almost dove for the stairs, but then a pair of strong arms hold him back.

“Stop Anthony, they’ll see you,” Aziraphale had followed him, with Warlock at his heels, and although the blond man seemed a bit out of balance and his grip wasn’t the same steel band he had felt from their run, he still hold him in place.

“Let me go, my mom’s down stairs, I need to go…”

Then, the front door opened with a bang and everyone down stairs went silent at once, the shuffle of feet ceased. Aziraphale gasped in Tony’s ear and he saw from his side vision how Warlock started shaking in pure fear.

“At ease, everyone,” the cold voice said and the next words left Tony without breath. “Tracy, my dear, it’s been a long time.”

“Luke” Mama Tracy’s voice dripped with disdain, forgotten was the warmth. “You finally did it, you crazy bastard.”

“I would have done it years ago, darling,” heavy footsteps move towards the left, where the living room was located. “But, if I remember correctly, you decided to have a conscience and spoil _our_ plans.”

The last bit was so menacing, that Tony fear for his mom’s safety, so he put all his strength into it a drag Aziraphale (the movement took the blond by surprise) and peak from the under the handrail: he could see his mom’s lithe frame and, right in front of her, was the body a very big and muscled man, all cladded in black, but his face was obscure by the wall of the living room (the fucker was to damn tall, taller than Tony).

“They were never ours,” Mama Tracy was holding her ground and she sounded even angrier. “You decided to bargain with many innocent lives on your way to “cleansed” the world. You are a madman!”

Tony had never heard his mother this angry or this challenging, but he felt a very odd sense of pride at seeing her so fierce and so brave, but then again, Mama Tracy had always been this force of nature.

A booming laugh ring through the house, it was a horrible, jagged laugh, and the man his mom had called Luke bent down a little, allowing Tony to see a bit of the man’s profile, but no enough to put features in his face.

“I really missed you, Tracy,” the man reached for his mother’s cheek, but she swatted his hand away, in a gesture that was very similar to Tony’s. “But I’m curious, why are you here? You took many precautions and put many wards up to deterred my efforts of finding you…” The man stood straight again and seem to look towards where, Tony assumed, Adam’s parents were. “Oh, I see, were you coming to warn them? Maybe save them?”

“Stop it, Luke,” Mama Tracy said and step in front of the man’s gaze, trying to kept his attention from Adam’s parents. “This isn’t going to work, your grand plan was never going to work, because…”

The man moved, not as fast as Aziraphale, but in one swift motion Tony saw how his hand close around his mom’s throat, cutting her speech and making Tony’s vision to go red, if it hadn’t been for Aziraphale’s quick reflexes, Tony would have scream and attack the man, but he was again restrained by the blond man and kept silent by a firm but gentle hand against his mouth.

“I don’t need to listen to your explanations and excuses, Tracy, because I’m tired of waiting for my destiny to come true,” he pulled Mama Tracy’ body towards him. “But still, I’m feeling a bit nostalgic and, seeing how you are here already, I think I like for you to witness everything _we_ work for.”

The man pulled out a something from his coat and, at the sight of it, Mama Tracy started to squirming and kicking, trying to get away; Tony heard a scuffle and then a yelp of pain, which could be from no other than from Mr. Young, “Stop it, stop it, you monster!” Yes, Mr. Young was definitely putting up a fight down stairs.

Before long, the man had done something to Mama Tracy, because her body went limp and he lifted in his arms, and it had been another person and in another place, Tony would think he was being gentle and loving.

“Do not worry,” the icy voice of Luke drifted upstairs, where Tony was still trying to pry himself from Aziraphale’s grip. “You are coming with us, too.”

The giant fucker stepped through the archway and Tony saw how he carried his mom towards the front door, taking her away from him… Without realizing it, Tony noticed how his cheeks were now completely wet with tears of fear, and anger, and longing and sadness; he felt so defeated, he hadn’t been able to do anything.

____________________________________

Anthony’s body went limp in his arms, and Aziraphale could feel how warm tears were running down his face and into his hand still cupping the redheaded man’s mouth; Aziraphale understood the feeling of not be able to do anything, but they couldn’t fight this enemy on their own: Luke Morgenstern was not only The Society’s leader, but a very vicious and gifted hunter.

They needed to leave before he noticed them, because if he did, they were as good as dead (at least, he was… he didn’t know what Warlock’s relation with that mas was and Anthony would probably be taken captive along with the rest of the humans).

“Anthony,” he whispered in the other man’s ear. “I know what you’re feeling, but we need to leave. We’ll save her, Anthony, I promise, but we need to leave.”

All the Hunters downstairs were getting ready to vacated the house, moving to follow their leader and manhandling Adam’s parents, but they were stop short when two man appeared in the front door… Aziraphale caught their scent and started to move backwards, knowing they were in deep, deep trouble now.

“Apparently,” one of the men, a tall, lean and very dirty looking fellow, was saying. “Our intel into the Camarilla misjudge the proficiency of the two vampires that were sent here for the child,” the man sounded amused and a cruel smile spread across his face, revealing the two very sharp fangs Aziraphale knew were there. “Your _best_ team was completely annihilated and the boy was nowhere to be found.”

Luke Morgenstern stood in the middle of the everyone, his body radiated pure wrath and violence, but his arms were still gentle around Anthony’s mom; still, Aziraphale kept moving inch by inch towards Adam’s bedroom.

“Find the boy, now,” Luke’s voice was a crack in the ice, a thunder in the distance, the condensed fury of bloodshed. Aziraphale was about to throw subtlety out the window and make a run for it, when he heard a faint whisper. _Please, save him_. The blond vampire lowered his gaze and caught the bleary but focused gaze of Madame Tracy. _Please, save him_ , she said again and Aziraphale felt all the love this woman had for the man in his arms.

“Don’t worry, boss,” the other vampire said, this one had dark skinned but was as dirty as his companion. “Young Warlock will lead the way, and if he doesn’t, then maybe we can ask his friends over there.”

Every pair of eyes landed on their little group at top of the stairs, but what put Aziraphale into motion was the cold and almost black stare of Luke Morgenstern; the blond vampire was already moving, with Anthony in his arms again, when the booming voice of the leader of the Hunters screamed: “AFTER THEM!”

________________________________________

Without any subtlety, Aziraphale closed the door and throw Adam’s bed, desk and dresser against it, to then rip open the window, making glass, plaster and wood rained everywhere; Tony had been left in the corner of the room, still in shock, but when Aziraphale lift him into his arms again and jump out of the window, the cool air and the shouts down the street made him regain consciousness again.

His mom was now held prisoner by the same fuckers that had attacked them earlier and that scary asshole had said many things Tony didn’t understand, but he intended to learn everything from Aziraphale and Warlock (who was keeping up with them) and even Newt if it was necessary… Tony needed to know his enemy if he was going to save his mom and Adam’s parents.

The three of them had landed in the branches of some tree and although there were no shouts or shots around them, that wouldn’t last. Aziraphale sit Tony against the trunk, careful of not letting him slip, and pull out a very batter cellphone from his pants, its screen was crack, but it lit up when the blond man touched it and then put it against his ear.

“Newton, grab Miss Device and Mr. Young, get in the car and meet us at the assign rendezvous point… Luke Morgenstern is here and we need to put some distance between us, before he takes our heads.”

Warlock was sitting next to Tony and he realized the boy was keeping him from falling, so he relaxed a bit into the tree and waited for Aziraphale to stop talking. When the blond man ended the call, he cleanly crushed the cellphone in his hand and throw it as far as Tony could see.

“Let’s go.”

“I don’t think so, buddy,” Tony got to his feet and found his footing, resting a hand against the tree. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“Anthony, we don’t have the time…”

“Then make it!”

“Please, I promise I’ll tell you everything you want to know when we’re a safe, but if they find us, I’m as good as dead and you’ll be taken away, too. I promise your mother I’ll keep you safe.”

“What?”

“Back at the house, she was still conscious and whisper to me, asked me to keep you safe… Since I haven’t been able to uphold any other promises, I’m upholding this one, so you can either come willingly or I’ll knock you out and drag you along.”

Tony knew Aziraphale wasn’t bluffing, his eyes were to bright and his fangs were completely out in the open, but he needed answers, he wanted to understand… His world had been turned upside down in under an hour and now they were running.

“Please, Anthony…” Aziraphale had come closer, and his voice was now much softer.

Tony’s brain was starting to get scrambled again, so he closed his eyes and turned his head. “Don’t do that, whatever it is. I’ll come, okay? But you better tell me everything,” still with his eyes close, he extended his arms and let Aziraphale pick him up.

They started moving again, but Tony kept his eyes close and buried his face into Aziraphale’s neck (noticing, for the very first time that night, that the blond man really didn’t had a heartbeat). He wasn’t sure where they were going or what this crazy night will bring, but Tony was certain that he was leaving Tadfield tonight and what scared him was not knowing if he was coming back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My chapter are getting longer and I'm getting worried about how many words I can write before it gets too out of hand, so I'll try to edit a bit more and have a more consistent story line. 
> 
> As usual, this work requieres revision and might contain grammatical errors.
> 
> Thank you for keep reading, you're amazing!


	11. Safe Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tadfield is way behind and the safest place now seems to be with the vampire that crashed into Tony's life, so if he wants to find the answers to his questions and rescue his mother, Tony might have to leave more than his home behind, since the world of the Kindred is a magic but dark place.

Ana was leaning against Tony’s old Bentley, her arms strongly secured around Adam’s slim shoulders (the boy hadn’t left her side the entire night and she was grateful for this, seeing how everything they knew had been taken away in matter of minutes), as they waited for Tony to arrived, hopefully along with Adam’s parents, Mama Tracy and Warlock, but Ana still had the same hollow feeling since Tony disappeared in Aziraphale’s arms about an hour ago: no one else was coming.

But still, she decided to keep that to herself and hold onto the hope that everything was going to be okay. The branches of the trees above them rustle a little and then Newt dropped in front of them, landing as if he had jumped from one meter above ground instead of seven.

Even now, watching him in front of her was making Ana so confused and hurt, because the last thing she knew about the boy who she had met and started to fell in love with was that he was dead… She had heard from his family and friends about it, how he had gone camping for his research and never came back, how his belongings had been found drenched in blood, in so much blood that it was impossible for someone to survived; but still, there he was, all lanky figure and big blue eyes, but, at the same time, he also looked like someone completely different.

Newt had remained by their side, just as Aziraphale had instructed him, but had kept silent and only spoke when it was necessary… At the cottage, Ana had move around the house in a precise fashion, collecting everything they might need (spare clothes, some jars of herbs for protection, her tarot cards, food, water and another few items) in a pair of duffle bags Tony kept for quick trips; Adam had followed her around and helped her as he put salts and other concoctions in the window sills and at the bottom of the doors.

When she heard a _ping_ and Newt’s voice answer what she now realized was a call, she was finishing with the safeguards (if they were leaving, their home would be left under strict protection); the call ended as quick as it had arrived and, for the second time in the night, Newt spoke directly to her.

“Annie,” the same voice, the same soft voice. “We need to go, now.”

There was urgency in his voice, but he moderated his tone so it didn’t sound jarring to her or to Adam, so she just nodded, took Adam’s hand in hers and marched towards the front door; Newt took the bags from her and step outside, and Ana, taking one last to what had been their home ( _Still IS our home!_ ), turn off the switch and every single light went off.

“Wow, how you do that?” It was so nice to see that, despite everything, Adam was still full of wonder.

“I’ll tell you one day,” Ana urged him towards the Bentley, seeing that Newt was already on the backseat (he hadn’t argued when Ana had taken the wheel before, and just let her); in a few seconds, they were speeding down the road, with Newt giving her directions to where they must go.

Now, here they were, a few minutes outside of Tadfield, in an overgrown clearing where Ana had parked next to a very shinny, very new car. _I guess vampires need other means of transport too._ Newt had gone to keep guard from above the trees, but it seemed that they were safe, at least for now… Still, the feeling of dread continued and Ana was starting to feel a bit shaken and worried about Tony.

More leaves fell from the canopy and Ana tried to regain her cool, since she didn’t want to have an avalanche… Usually, plants didn’t react to violently to her moods, but seeing what kind of night this had been, she wasn’t entirely sure if she could whiter an entire tree.

“They are okay, Annie,” Newt had moved silently and was now leaning against the Bentley too, which took Ana by surprise and made her took a step a back along with Adam. “I’m sorry,” Newt looked down and also took a step back, giving her some space.

“Sorry, you just startled me,” Ana said, but he didn’t look up. “Newt…”

The canopy started making sounds and some branches snapped, which prompted Newt to throw himself in front of Ana and Adam, and let out a deep growl of warning, which stop when the three of them recognized the voice that was coming their way.

“Holy fuck! Holy shitting fuck! Holy motherfucker son of a bitch!” Tony was screaming, not at the top of his lungs, but loud enough for Newt to wince a bit, checking around to see if some danger had followed the noise.

A few paces away, Aziraphale landed, and next to him was Warlock ( _I knew there was something about him,_ Ana thought), and in Aziraphale’s arms was the trashing and rabid figure of Tony, who was still swearing and speaking loudly. “Put me down, put me down now! Right at this fucking moment!”

Aziraphale tried to put Tony down gently, but the redheaded man half roll, half tumble to the ground, going on all fours and started hyperventilating; Ana surged forward, worry all over her face for her best friend, with Adam still by her side, and both of them kneeled next to Tony, with Ana trying to find some sort of injury or anything that had caused so much distress to him.

“Tony, are you hurt? What happened?” Tony was still trying to catch his breath, so she whirled around and face down the blond vampire in front of her. “What did you do to him?” More leaves started to raining down on them and Ana was angry enough that, even she wasn’t sure she could do it, she was about to set fire to someone.

“Everything is fine, Miss Device, I can assure you,” Aziraphale was standing his ground, but a little wrinkle of worry had settle between his brow and he was watching intently at Tony. “I kind of… slip from one of the branches in our path and we tumble a bit, but we weren’t in any kind of peril.”

“Fuck, I thought we were gonna die…” Tony had finally regained enough strength in his limbs and was now standing up and he reached one arm around Ana to find a bit of support.

Ana hug him from the waist and pull him towards her, and it was in this moment that she finally realized that they were, as her inner feeling had warned her, totally alone; apart from the new addition of Warlock (who was now beside Adam and both boys were holding hands while they seemed to maintain a quiet conversation), there was no one else at the clearing.

“Tony, what happened?” Ana repeated. “Where’s Mama Tracy and Adam’s parents?”

Tony stiffened in her embrace and seemed completely out of balance again, and then he crossed a look with Aziraphale and, after a moment, a mutual understanding settle between them.

“We will inform you of everything that transpire in our visit to Mr. Young’s home, but right now we need to put some distance between us and some very nasty people that are following us,” Aziraphale said. “The distance will also be beneficial for Mr. Warlock, since I’m must certain the can’t track you on great distances, correct?”

Warlock was still by Adam’s side, but the boy (the vampire boy) seemed a bit out of place with the question. “I don’t really know,” he murmured. “They didn’t tell me anything, but they’ve always been able to find me.”

“Do not worry, dear boy, I got a good look at your sire and his companion, so if we put some distance between us and with some help of Miss Device here, will be able to send them astride,” Aziraphale seemed to asses the entwined hands of both boys. “Since I’m sure that leaving you behind is not an option, is it Mr. Young?”

“No one else stays behind,” Tony answered before Adam could speak, and the boy look at him with the same love and adoration Ana had seen many times before. “And you’ll answer all of our questions, and that’s that.”

Tony started walking towards the parked cars, hand in hand with Ana and Adam. Newt trotted close to Aziraphale, who seemed a bit battered and exhausted, but Ana didn’t know if vampires could actually get tired.

“Aziraphale, are you alright?” Newt asked him, looking really concerned. “When you say you slipped…”

“It is completely fine, Newton, let’s just get out of here,” Ana couldn’t read auras of vampires since, apparently, the didn’t posses one, but she knew and outright lie when she heard one… What was the blond vampire hiding?

They had reached the Bentley, Tony was opening the doors to let the boys climb in the back, when Aziraphale interrupted his motions. “Anthony, I think is better if we take our car, it will be faster.”

_Oh no…_

“Excuse me?” Tony whirled and closed the door with enough force that Ana’s teeth rattled. “My car is fast enough to go anywhere you need to go, oh so powerful creature of the night,” Aziraphale winced at this. “So you can shove your opinions right up…”

“Tony,” Ana pulled from his arm. Her best friend turned to, probably, asked her to stay out of it, but Ana just signal to with his head to Adam and Warlock; both boys were almost glued to one another, the black haired boy completely supporting Adam’s weight as he cried in silence.

This night had been hell, and not only for Tony and Ana, but for Adam as well, and she could see how that was affecting his emotions and stability: Adam’s aura was swirling with dark and oppressing colors, the green of mold, the red of stale blood, the purple of a bruise and the worse one: the pitch black of despair… Fighting will only make things worse, and Tony seemed to realize this.

He went around Ana and with care, took Adam’s hand, making the boy jump a bit as he started to try and dry the tears in his cheeks, but Tony just pet his bronze curls and drag him, along with Warlock, to the back doors of the vampire’s car.

“Let’s just go,” Tony said, completely tired.

“Anthony,” Aziraphale tried to reach for him, but stopped before touching his arm, so he just nodded and climbed in to the passenger seat. Newt follow suit, took the duffle bags from where he had placed them earlier (Ana kind of knew the Bentley wouldn’t make the rest of the ride), stuffed them in the trunk and seated behind the wheel. 

Ana approached and hug her friend, knowing what it meant to him leaving his beloved car behind, in such a place where it might not survive the inclemency of the weather, but also aware that Tony would had left the Bentley and Eden to burn down over and over again if it meant that Adam, Ana and his mom will be alright.

They hug for one more minute and then Tony helped Ana climbed into the backseat, closing the door after he was settled down too. Aziraphale just signaled Newt and they speed down into the night, the red tail lights illuminating the last vestiges of the Bentley and Tadfield.

_______________________________________

“Newton, our things,” Aziraphale had buckled up his seatbelt and realized Newt was heading straight for London, and it might not be the time to worry about material things, but Aziraphale really need a change of clothes.

“They are in the back, I packed them before coming here,” so young Newt really was prepared for the worse, a very Brujah way of seeing life.

“Thank you, dear boy,” Aziraphale looked at rearview mirror, watching as young Adam was almost completely asleep in Warlock’s shoulder, the vampire boy was holding him close ( _Interesting_ , Aziraphale thought); then, he looked at what he had been looking the whole night, Anthony… The redheaded man was quiet, holding Adam’s hand with his right hand and with his left arm around Miss Device shoulders, with the girl snuggling very close at his side.

Anthony was looking down, but then he seemed to feel the weight of Aziraphale’s stare on him and looked up, his golden eyes were now kind of opaque, more on the side of honey than melted gold, and he looked completely and utterly tired: his hair was disarranged and even wilder than before, he had a few scratches in his left cheekbone, a blooming bruise was starting to appeared in his jaw and his jacket, shirt and pants were torn and covered in spots of blood and a bit of plaster.

But, to Aziraphale’s shock, Anthony didn’t seem as angry as he had been a few hours ago, his gaze wasn’t heated or in distress, he just seemed to be looking, really looking for the first time, at Aziraphale… There was curiosity, but caution too, and even a bit of fear (which wasn’t something Aziraphale wanted to see in those beautiful eyes), but not enough to make him look anywhere else but at Aziraphale’s blue eyes.

They stared at each other for a long moment and then Adam moved a bit, and the spell broke since Anthony looked over the now sleeping boy to see if he needed something; Aziraphale looked down at his hands, still covered in dry blood and saw the little cuts he had suffered from the ripped window and the crushed cellphone… They were healing, but there was something off about it, he couldn’t place it, since his head was swimming a bit and he felt a bit dizzy. _Something’s wrong, something is very, very wrong_ , Aziraphale thought, but shake it off when Tony cleared his throat.

“So, where are we going? I don’t remember seeing a big spooky castle with swarms of bats around here,” Anthony’s voice was strained, but his attempted at a very bad joke seemed like a good sign.

“London, we had accommodations in one of the Camarilla’s hotels,” Aziraphale responded. “We will regroup there and get in contact with the rest of our clans.”

“Aha, I have no idea what anything of what you just said means, but if by _accommodations_ you mean we can get some rest and some answers, then I’m down.”

“I haven’t forgotten my promise, Anthony, I will tell you everything.” Aziraphale gave him a small smile and, for a second, it seemed the redheaded man would also smile in return, but he just nodded and turned around to whisper something in Anathema’s hair, probably to muffled the sound.

They drove in silence for almost the entire journey to the city, Aziraphale searching with more than sight and hearing for upcoming threats, but the night seemed devoid of anything dangerous, with the exception of the very stupid humans that didn’t posses the sharp reflexes they needed to avoid collisions or speeding tickets in the highway… Aziraphale was amazed at how many humans could reach adulthood now days, when everyone seemed to be in a hurry all the time and putting themselves at risk every second.

“Newton, can I borrow your cellphone for a moment?” Aziraphale was starting to noticed the hue of the millions of tiny lights from London in the distance, and although the hotel management would be no problem for them, Aziraphale still believe in common courtesy (and in securing the best room).

“Sure,” the young vampire fished out his phone from his jeans. “Where’s yours?”

“It got completely ruined in the scuffle from before, so I disposed of it in the woods,” Aziraphale dialed the hotel’s manager direct line. “These devices might be _smart_ , but they brake so easily.” Newt just smiled and kept driving.

The manager of the Ritz picked up at the second ring, her voice dripping with compliments and helpfulness, asking what she could do to help Aziraphale and offering so many things even before the blond vampire had finished his greeting… Humans at the service of the Camarilla were completely enamored with the idea that, one day, the might join the Kindred and lived forever, so Aziraphale kept his temper under control (he seemed very unfazed tonight) and nicely asked for two conjoined suites and, preferably, far away from other guests.

“Of course, Mr. Frye,” the manager said. “We’ll have the suites ready for you, with all the _necessities_ cover,” which was her way of saying many packages of blood will be delivered to the rooms. “Can I do anything else for you?”

“Yes, in fact you can,” Aziraphale said, a bit of coldness in his voice, since he was tired of hearing the adoration that a mere human had for her predator. “We need access to your service lift, since we need discretion for the night.” Also, Aziraphale didn’t want to walk into the foyer of the Ritz looking like a demented vampire.

“Oh… yes, yes, of course, Mr. Frye,” the manager seemed a bit confused, but didn’t inquire further. “I’ll send someone to wait for you at the garage.”

Aziraphale said his goodbyes and hang up before the overly helpful woman could offer something she might regret (he still hadn’t forgotten the Greek manager that had delivered two beautiful girls to his room once).

“Suites?” Anthony’s voice came from the backseat and seemed to wash away every bad feeling Aziraphale had at the moment. _I really like his voice._ “Where exactly are we going?”

“Do not worry, Anthony,” Aziraphale let his head rolled a bit to the side, so he could see the redheaded man. “We are almost there.”

_______________________________________________

Tony had assumed Aziraphale was probably loaded when he met him, then he discovered the blond man was not a man at all ( _vampire_ was still a jarring word for him), but when they boarded the DBX earlier that night, he preferred to concentrated in something his mind might have less of a problem dealing with and started making conjectures about Aziraphale’s life… Until they turn on Piccadilly and enter the parking garage of The Ritz, a place he and Ana had walked and drove by many times, joking about booking a table for a nice dinner. 

Newt (who, now that Tony had a clear vies of him, was starting to seem vaguely familiar) parked at the back, near the STAFF ONLY sign, where a bellboy in a pristine uniform was standing next to a woman in stiff but very expensive looking clothes, both were fidgeting and looking a bit nervous.

Four valets approached the car, three going for the front doors and Ana’s back door and one going for the trunk; almost as if they had timed it, the four valets opened their respective doors at the same time and waited for all of them to climb down from the car.

Newt stepped down, smiling openly at the valet, fangs in full view, before placing the keys of the car in the very-scared-but-very-professional valet’s hand and going straight for the trunk; the valet from Ana’s side had helped her to climbed down and now was waiting for Tony, who was pulling Adam’s half sleep form from the car, when he heard a terrified gasp and a little scream that was silence immediately.

Tony had finally exited the car, with Adam and Warlock in tow, realizing that the valet from Aziraphale’s door and the bellboy were the ones who had gasped and screamed, because there, under the fluorescents lights from the garage, stood Aziraphale, still drenched in dried blood, his pale skin looked like white marble and his eyes seemed to reflected the light in an almost feline way… In conclusion, he didn’t look human, at all, and the real humans were scared shitless, but refraining from running away, maybe because their jobs depended on it.

As if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened, the blond man walked straight for the stunned couple by the staff elevator, with Newt almost at his heels, carrying two duffle bags that Tony recognized instantly; trying to remain calm and follow suit, he walked forward too, dragging along Adam, Warlock and Ana.

“Mr. Frye, welcome back,” the woman, who Tony assumed might be the manager of the Ritz, was smiling a little to hard, maybe in an attempt to stop her mouth from quivering. “As requested, we had assigned the best of our Piccadilly suites and the floor has been cleared of any guests.”

“Thank you, dear girl,” the blond man took what look like little paper envelopes from the shaking fingers of the manger, who was, most decidedly, not a girl, but Tony decided to keep that thought to himself.

“If you please, my lord” the manager signal for the bellhop, who had stay frozen by her side this whole time, to take the bags and carry them to the elevator.

“Actually, we can find our rooms on our own, thank you,” Aziraphale smiled at the bellboy, who was probably a few seconds away from peeing himself. “But we might need room service in a few minutes and, if you’ll be so kind, someone to shop for some clothes for my guests here,” he signaled to the very thigh group that Tony formed with the boys and Ana.

“It might be a bit late for shopping, my lord,” the manager said, but she hurriedly added, “but tomorrow morning I’ll send my best concierge to your rooms for everything you might need.”

With a nod and small smile, Aziraphale thanked the woman and gestured for Tony to go first into the elevator with Ana and the boys, followed by Newt and then, finally, Aziraphale got in; as the elevator doors closed, Tony could have sworn the valets, the bellboy and the manager left a big relieved sigh.

When the elevator reached their floor, the six of them stepped into one of the most luxurious hallways Tony had ever seen in his life… He hadn’t been poor or anything like that when he was a child, but moving from place to place with his mom meant they never had so much money to spared, but still, Tony never craved luxury or prestige, and now, walking down the carpeted corridors, he understood how detached and cold everything felt, even if everything was worth more than his house and car, it also felt so hollow. _But damn, it is nice._

“This is you,” Aziraphale had stopped in front of a door almost in the middle of the hallway and was now extending two of the little envelopes to Tony, which contain the keys to the suite. “I believe this is about to become a very long night, so I will highly recommend that you freshen up and order room service so you can regain your strength.”

“Where are you going? I thought we were staying together,” Tony later would have claimed he asked the questions in regards of the answers he sought, not because he didn’t want to loose sight of the blond man in front of him. 

“Just down the hall, as we also need a bit of freshen up and to eat something,” the last bit was said with enough meaning behind it that Tony just didn’t want to think about what kind of dinner Aziraphale and Newt might be having behind close doors. “Mr. Warlock, I think is better if you come with us, too.”

“Why?” Adam was still a bit groggy, but was clinging with a very fierce expression to Warlock’s arm.

“Don’t get upset, Adam, it’s just that Warlock might also need to eat something and until I can discuss with Miss Device the type of wards we need and the ones she can create, is better if I shield Warlock’s presence,” Aziraphale seemed to believe this explanation was enough, but it just confused Adam. “Miss Device, I assume you came prepare for any kind of ward and spell we might need?”

Ana just nodded, but it was a bit absently as she was trying to catch Newt’s eyes, but the young man was making his best effort at appreciating the pattern in the rug of the hallway.

“Excellent, then we won’t be long. Newton, dear boy, the bags if you pleased,” Newt passed him the duffle bags and, hastily, turned around and walked down the hall. “And do not worry about the expenses of this place, please, so order whatever you like. Warlock, let’s go,” the black haired boy gave Adam’s a quick nod and walked over to Aziraphale, who smiled shyly at Tony and walked to where Newt was opening another door.

Sighing, Tony lifted the duffle bags from the floor and opened the (very expensive) door, which led the three of them into one of the most beautiful suites in the world, with enormous windows that look directly at Piccadilly, but they were tired and stunned enough to notice everything for a long time, so they just dragged themselves further into the suite.

The sitting room was dimly lighted and next to the TV, Tony noticed there was what look like an improvise setting, with a little cooler, a small electric teapot and a very modern microwave; not thinking much of it for the moment, he let himself sprawled in the central couch, to then pulled down Ana and Adam, with the three of them huddling together and finding comfort in the silent embrace.

“Crowley,” Adam said after a few moments. “Are my mom and dad… okay?” His voice cracked at the end and Tony knew the poor boy was trying very hard to keep it together and not crumbling under the pressure of the night.

“They are and I promise you’ll see them again,” Tony said, petting the now unruly curls in Adam’s head. Ana snuggled a little closer and hugged Tony’s waist, knowing how much pain he was in for also loosing Mama Tracy, and Tony loved her for that, for knowing when he just needed it to be held and not tell anything else.

The seconds ticked by and the sounds from the street started to attenuated, so Tony stir a bit and made both of his friends to also move. “Come on, let’s order something to eat and take a shower in the mean time.”

“You two go ahead with the shower,” Ana said. “I need to order some very specific things for the wards Aziraphale mention and to prepare something else Mama Tracy asked me,” Tony winced a bit, but decided to asked later. “Do you feel peckish about something in particular?”

Tony wasn’t especially hungry right then, so he told Ana to pick anything she liked and Adam did the same; after that was settle, Tony walked Adam to one of the rooms, which was exquisitely decorated, except for the curtains, since they seemed made out of a very hard, dark and heavy material, but decided against on following that train of thought. After Adam enter the bathroom, Tony walked back out, noticing that Ana was trying to talked to what sound like a very excited front desk clerk; she just shrugged and smile at him, while she urged him to go and shower.

The second room was as exquisite as the first and have the same odd curtains, so Tony just decided to inspect them later and hurried to the bathroom… It was enormous, with spongy towels and an assortment of oils, shampoo and soap to choose from, but since time was of the essence, Tony decided to take a shower instead of a bath, so he undressed and jumped into the shower.

The cold water washed over him and Tony shiver, but he endured it; he hadn’t been alone with his thoughts the entire night and now, as the water begun to warm up, everything came crashing down on him, which sent him to his knees while he sobbed… What had happened? Here he was, in one of the must luxurious hotels in the UK, but he was also neck deep in something he didn’t understand: his mom had been kidnaped, along with Adam’s parents, by a crazy cult, the man he was starting to fancy turned out to not be a man at all but a vampire, which in turn led Tony down a spiral path of unanswered questions: Why had his mom been kidnap? How did she know those people? What did that mean for him? For Adam? For Ana? What was the Camarilla that Aziraphale didn’t stop talking about? There were more vampires out there? Why had Aziraphale arrived at Tadfield when all this began?

Tony was sobbing and rocking under the water, he felt as if he was loosing his hold on reality, but he couldn’t just crumble, because Ana, Adam and Aziraphale needed him and he needed them, so he pushed himself to stand up and to started to wash away the dirt, ash, plaster and (he shivered a bit) blood from his body… He needed to be strong.

______________________________________

Aziraphale had lock himself in the bathroom the second he made sure Warlock’s mind was guarded against the intrusion from his sire (the man and his companion had been Gangrel, but just barely… they might have been thin bloods for all that Aziraphale had picked from them) and after Newton started to warm cups of blood.

He desperately craved for a long and warm bath, but he just turned on the shower and let it warm while he undressed in front of the mirror… He started from his shoes, then his torn trousers, to then continue to his waistcoat, but when his fingers reached for the last buttons of his shirt, he hesitated, almost worry about what he would find under; taking a deep and unnecessary breath, he ripped the ruined shirt and looked up… If he still had had a heartbeat, he was sure it had skipped several beats to then start racing against his ribcage, because there, on his left shoulder where the Hunter had stabbed him, his skin was cracked as if it was made of stone, surrounded by black veins that were starting to expand down his arm and his chest.

Aziraphale retreated to the shower and started to washed away all the filth of the night as his mind started to rebel against the one word that could stilled fear in the Kindred: _Corruption_ … Somehow, The Society of Leopold had harness the terrible and painful decease that had decimated many covens in Europe, Africa and America, and now, Aziraphale was infected with it, which meant he didn’t had time, and for an immortal being that was an idea that could make him lost his mind.

Fat and bloody tears started rolling down his soft and round cheeks, splashing and getting washed away down the drain. _I’m dying, I’m dying, I’m dying_ , because if there was something that was certain, it was that The Corruption didn’t have a cure and was highly contagious among the Kindred, one single bite or scratch was all it required to spread to next immortal, and to start consuming them.

Aziraphale crouched and hugged himself, because there was no way out: The Corruption would start to take over him, making him ravenous and rabid, letting The Beast in control more often until his brain was all predator and no logic, to, finally after no more than a week, consume him and let behind a carcass of putrid and rancid blood; the mental image of his ruined body was swept away by a sound, it was very soft and rhythmic, almost drown by the running water, but there it was, so Aziraphale zoomed in on it until he realized what he was listening: Anthony was crying, sobbing under his own shower, mumbling apologies to his mom, Adam, Anathema and, shockingly, Aziraphale himself.

Picturing Anthony in such a state, completely lost and sad, gave Aziraphale the strength to stand up and wash away the last tears clinging to his face, while he decided that, is these were his last days on this Earth, he’ll make sure to keep the promises he had made, to the Camarilla, to Mother, to his Clan and, more importantly, to Anthony… An idea was starting to take shape deep in Aziraphale’s clever mind and he was willing to used until the last second of his humanity and intelligence to try and save the world, not only because it was the only one they had, but because it was the only place where Anthony could continue to exist and live.

He stepped out of the shower, dried himself and dressed in a hurry (he didn’t deem necessary to wear a bow tie this time); the sitting room was filled with the smell of warm blood, and although Aziraphale felt how The Beast wanted to get out there and find a fresher source, he walked straight to Newton and Warlock, who were on their second cup of blood.

“Aziraphale, do you…” Newt was cut short when Aziraphale took Warlock and turned him to face him; the young vampire was caught off guard when the blond vampire dragged a sharp nail along his palm, which brought up to the surface what Aziraphale already knew was nestle under the boy’s skin: a black and almost coagulated blood peaked, for then to disappeared under the healed skin again.

Newt hissed and jumped back, crashing against the wall, breaking a very fine mirror along the way. “The Corruption! He has it!” Newt’s eyes had turned almost electric blue while his fangs were in full display, his Brujah nature wanting to eliminated the threat in front of him.

“Newton, calm down,” Aziraphale said.

“Calm down? Aziraphale, that boy…”

“It’s the source of The Corruption, but he can’t infect you, can you, Warlock?”

Warlock had frozen in the middle of the sitting room, he was looking towards the door, examining if he will be able to reach it in time, but seeing how he was face against to older vampires, he decided against it and went for the safest route: telling the truth.

“No, I can’t, but… How did you know?”

“Guessed,” Aziraphale said with a small smile. “I think we ought to have a small chat before we returned with the rest of our friends, don’t we?”

“I don’t know much,” Warlock said.

“But you know enough,” Aziraphale continued. “First things first, where did they make you and how did The Society learn about the First Blood?” Oh yes, this was definitely going to become a very, very, long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to believe that this story is gonna need a few more chapters if I'm about to fit in everything I want into it, but until I'm certain of it, I leave it at 20 chapters for now. 
> 
> This chapter is a bit more chill and relax, as the next one will be, since is time for some answers (but not all of them), so bear with me, I'm moving as fast as I can towards the climax of the story :) Also, I've been working in one-shots of Good Omens, so I might be posting them while I worked on The First Blood. 
> 
> As usual, this work needs revision and might contain spelling and grammar errors. Thanks for keep reading, for all your comments and your kudos! You guys are the best!


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